


-And You Can Go There Now-

by Chummy_Chum_Chum



Category: LittleBigPlanet
Genre: Angst, Clive Handforth is best emotional support :), Death, Depression, Father Figures, Father OC - Freeform, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, I hate when people do that in fics, M/M, More tags to be added, Not everyone is gay, Original Male Character - Freeform, PTSD, Sackton, Where did all you readers come from that’s weird?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21589360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chummy_Chum_Chum/pseuds/Chummy_Chum_Chum
Summary: The story of how Sackboy, a voiceless sackperson suffering from PTSD after the events of the Negativitron, finds his voice to let others know what’s been going on in his life.Alternatively, Newton Pud suffers from Depression after the death of his father, and finds the courage to reach out for help, even if he believes there’s no one who can possibly trust him anymore after nearly laying waste to Bunkum.Can these two save each other if given the chance? Can they find the courage to find their voices together and change?
Relationships: Captain Pud & Steven Craftston, Nana Pud & Steven Craftston, Newton & Clive Handforth, Newton & Marlon Random, Newton & Nana Pud, Newton & Steven Craftston, Sackboy & Clive Handforth, Sackboy & Marlon Random, Sackboy & Nana Pud, Sackboy & Oddsock, Sackboy & Steven Craftston, Sackboy/Newton
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	1. One Can Gaze Upon Something And See The Wonder In It,

The power to Create is huge. Way too many barely recognize it after the age of 10.

It’s kind of sad, honestly. 

Sackboy has learned to live with that fact though. With the seemingly never ending loneliness that was once Littlebigplanet. 

The Pod was now more empty than ever, Sackboy having decided that decorations were pointless. The young sack had ‘Volver a Comenzar’ on loop for a few hours now, it was really the only thing that kept him at least a little motivated, even if he didn’t understand the words. It was the music and the way the song was executed that made him slightly smile. 

Outfits stopped being fun a long time ago, but Sackboy has settled on a Cricket Jumper, Khaki Shorts, and a red Scarf. He had for the most part deleted all the ones he had ever had before, not being able to find a use for them. He just didn’t care right now. Things to him just weren’t fun anymore. Especially alone like this. He didn’t want to bother any of his friends back on Bunkum or Craftworld, considering the holidays were coming up, but things were just getting way too dull here alone, in an empty pod, alone. 

The problem though is that Sackboy didn’t know which friend to contact and from where.  
He thought for a moment, and then decided that he couldn’t hangout with anybody back on Craftworld, because today all of his friends back home were busy with the Inventathon, a marathon inventing competition. Sackboy didn’t participate anymore, he had won first place for a few years now, and he certainly didn’t want to ruin any of his friend’s fun.  
The competition didn’t end until the next day anyways. After another moment of thought, Sackboy decided his best bet was to head to Bunkum and see what all of his friends back there were doing. ‘Yeah, that’s not a bad idea actually...’ 

Sackboy smiled and finally changed the freaking song. 

Feeling energized for the first time in a while, the small sack set his Pod to Bunkum and to pass the time while he waited to arrive to his destination he started to decorate the small-ish space. I suppose it wasn’t really that small, but it was cozy. 

After a while Sackboy had finally arrived at Bunkum. He had basically sprinted out of the Pod and found his -at the moment- bare feet on soft, pale grass. He took a deep breath, he had no idea how stuffy it was in the Pod until he came out of it.  
He’d kept himself in there for nearly two months!  
He thought about just sitting in the grass for a moment before meeting up with anybody or doing anything, but he ultimately decided against it. If he sat down now, he’d never leave the softness of the grass! 

He sat down anyway, completely abandoning his previous thoughts and putting on the pair of shoes he had in his hands. He thought for a moment, before getting an idea: Zom Zom’s! There could be new outfits there! And talking to Zom Zom was always a treat anyways, with his fun little accent and quirky personality. 

Standing up, Sackboy dusted himself of grass and started walking. 

The issue? 

He had forgotten where he was. 

It had been so long since he was last on Bunkum that he couldn’t remember anymore. 

He continued walking in the hopes that he would find someplace familiar, but he ended up getting even more lost than before, he couldn’t even find his Pod. 

Perhaps he had been out for so long that his Pod went back up into space. It would do that on occasion if he were away from it for too long.  
He had expected this to happen, but now it actually kind of scared him.  
I mean, he could always just go back if he so pleased.  
Just a simple push of a button in his Popit. 

But Sackboy refused to ever do it at night, which was about now actually. It was getting darker by the minute, and Sackboy had a very serious fear of portal travel in the dark. 

He had done it once before and he ended up going to some strange foreign world. It was awful. Getting back was so hard, and it took absolutely forever. 

The small sackperson shook himself out of his thoughts and focused on the task at hand. 

Or foot, so to say. 

He kept walking, but out of nowhere he hit his head on some sort of wall, and then fell. 

He just laid there for a moment, looking at the ground, before noticing that it had started to rain.  
Perfect. Just awesome, Fan-Freaking-Tastic. 

It was dark, Sackboy was muddy, and it was cold. 

Oh so cold. He stood up, noticing his newly mud-stained torso. He really liked that Cricket Jumper too. Now he had to wash it somehow. He sighed and walked around. Small, timid steps so he wouldn’t fall again. 

It was dark to the point that he could barely see anything, and he was shivering madly, but somehow, he still felt hope. He just knew that something good was bound to happen, so he made himself continue. And then all of a sudden, a voice, loud and raspy, but also sweet:

“Oh, Heavens!” Nana Pud nearly shouted, worry obvious in her voice, “Sackboy? Is that you? What are you doing in this downpour! It’s freezing! And at bedtime especially!” 

Almost instantaneously, Nana Pud was in front of Sackboy, grabbing hold of his arm and walking him back to where he assumed was Stichem Manor. 

No wonder it hurt so bad when he hit his head. 

Still, Sackboy was very surprised at how fast the woman was. She may have had to chase Newton around a lot and that explains it. Or maybe that’s just all mothers.

“Come! Come! I thought I heard a strange noise on our wall, I had never suspected it was you -oh you wouldn’t believe how terrified my Newty was- did you hurt yourself? “ The two had reached the entrance of the building and Nana Pud opened the door, gently pushing Sackboy inside. She went inside too and got a better look at one of Bunkum’s heroes. 

Seeing he was dirty and muddy and smelled like rain, she exclaimed “Oh dearie goodness me! This will never do! You’re all covered in mud and muck! Follow me,” 

She grabbed hold of Sackboy’s hand and walked him to what seemed to be the other side of the house, and indirectly gave the smaller sackperson a tour of the recently remodeled Manor that was nearly completed destroyed by the Titans way back when. 

The two had reached a door, it was a deep purple with lightbulbs covering it. Along with space themed stickers and decorations. 

This had to be Newton’s room. 

To Sackboy’s surprise, Nana proceeded to beat the door, “Newty, are you in there? We have a guest!” 

After a few seconds, and the sound of rushed shuffling, Newton opened the door. His bowler hat sideways as if he had been in a wind storm. Sackboy took note that it didn’t match his pajamas, and wondered why he even still wore it this late anyways. He was wearing a white t-shirt and grey sweatpants. His sweatpants, too, were a bit lopsided. His t-shirt was just very crinkled. He must have put them all on in a rush, but it was Newton. He was always in a rush, after all. 

It was just then that Newton happened to take notice of Sackboy’s presence, and immediately he fixed his sweatpants, along with his hat. “Ah! Sackboy! Hello dear chum!“ He then noticed how muddy Sackboy was, “You, um, you’re a bit, er, muddy-“ His mother nodded, “Do you have any old clothes of yours the poor dear could wear for the night? There is no way I’m letting him go in this downpour! And it’s freezing! His stitches could come undone!”  
Newton nodded in agreement.  
“I’m going to go get some towels for him, they may need to be dried, I’ll be right back,” and with that, Nana Pud was gone. The two sackpersons stood there for a few seconds, before Newton faked coughed and awkwardly gestured towards his door. 

“Well, come along, dear chum! My clothes may be...well, not a ‘bit’ big, they may in fact be considerably large on you, but we’ll find something.” Sackboy found this adorable, having not normally hearing Newton be so awkward, and smiled, following Newton into his room.

“Um, just stand over there for a moment,” Newton pointed to the middle of the room, just in front of his bed and right next to his desk, which was covered in all sorts of blueprints, index cards, and sticky notes. 

Sackboy complied and Newton went towards his closet at the far end of the room, rummaging through all of his purple trench coats and shirts to find something comfortable for Sackboy to wear and sleep in. After a few minutes of rummaging through the closet, Newton pulled out the smallest pairs of clothes he had. “Gee, I haven’t worn any of these in ages! I barley even remember getting them!” He chuckled. “So, um, yeah, you take a look at those, and you can just have a knock at the door when you’re finished-“ Newton stacked all of the clothes on his bed and prepared to leave the room, but Sackboy had tugged at the end of his t-shirt as he started walking. Making a ‘hmm?’ sound, Newton turned around to see Sackboy pointing at himself. Covered in mud, wet from the rain, and smelling of the outside.  
Newton mentally faced palmed.  
“Oh!” He exclaimed, “Sorry dear chum! Um, just pick something and I’ll show you to the restroom,”  
His face felt warm from slight embarrassment. He could be so forgetful sometimes.  
Sackboy smiled like he was about to laugh, grabbing some clothes and making sure to keep them away from his muddy torso while he followed the bigger sackperson out of the room. Newton pointed at a door to the left of his room, Sackboy nodded and smiled at Newton as a thank you. Just then, Nana pud arrived, “Thankfully these were just about done drying, dearie, here you go!”  
She put them on the pile of clothes that Sackboy was already holding,  
“If you don’t mind can you put the extras on the sink counter?” She received a nod and smiled, “Thank you! You’re so kind! I can see why my Newty likes you so much-” She patted him on the head and was gone, along with Newton, who Sackboy didn’t even noticed had left.  
What his mother said had embarrassed him deeply, his mom shared some embarrassing things like that to those he was fond of way too often. So he had quickly and silently escaped to his room to avoid confrontation, his bulb warm and bright.  
With no other option, Sackboy opened the door he was pointed to and entered the bathroom, placing all the towels but one on the sink counter as asked and put the last one in his hand on a hook on the wall to use later.  
He turned on the water and made sure it was warm before he gathered all his dirty clothes into a pile on the ground -making sure the muddy sides were up so the floor wouldn’t get dirty- and got in, feeling the warm water wash away any mud that was on him as if it was never even there in the first place. 

Newton was in his room reading over a few notes he had on his desk, having put all of the extra clothes back in his closet so there wouldn’t be a mess.  
His desk was black with glow in the dark stars on it, but you wouldn’t be able to tell with all the papers covering it. His entire room was space themed:  
Glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, models of all the planets dangling from strings, dancing in the gentle glow of the room. Basking in the moonlight coming in from the slightly open window.  
Newton sighed and fiddled with his hat for a minute before he heard knocks on his door, was Sackboy done already?  
He couldn’t be, he just got in the shower!  
How long was Newton at his desk? He opened the door, but instead of finding his dear chum he found his mom.

“Oh! Hello Mumsy!” Nana smiled, “How’re you holding up dearie?” She was asking because his father, Captain Pud, was on a business trip and hadn’t come back for two weeks now. 

And in all honesty? Newton was worried. He was oh so worried. He put on a small smile. “He’ll be alright, I know he will,” he said, much softer than how he normally spoke. 

His mother patted him on the shoulder and brought him in for a hug,

“Just be patient love, your father will be home soon enough.” She kissed her son on the forehead and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. 

Newton went back to his desk and took a few moments to breathe.  
He missed his father.  
A lot. 

He’s been leaving so much more often lately, but Newton refused to give up hope that they’d all be in the same house together one day.  
It may be seen as weak, sure.  
Newton was a grown man still living with his parents and missing them when they were gone, but that’s no one else’s business but his own!  
And he was fine with that. 

Feeling reassured by himself, Newton smiled and stretched, popping his back while his was at it.  
It felt great.  
It was around this time that Sackboy had finished his shower.  
He turned off the water and grabbed the towel, drying his stitches and wiping the water out of his button eyes. He grabbed the clothes he picked out, a large white sweater and black sweatpants.  
Sackboy never figured Newton was the type to wear a white sweater, considering how messy he could be when inventing, but he didn’t judge, he was grateful to be wearing something dry, especially because it was warm and soft also.  
He grabbed his dirty clothes off of the floor, along with the towel he just used, and exited the bathroom, knocking gently on the door three times. To his surprise, the door opened instantly. 

“There you are dear chum! I was wondering-“ Newton stopped. He collected the dirty clothes (and towel) from Sackboy’s arms, mumbling a ‘Here, let me get that for you’ and putting them in a hamper before turning back to his dear chum. It was just then he noticed his romantic interest wearing his sweater, way too big on him, and his old sweatpants. 

Huh, he thought he lost those after the ‘Great Cheese Incident’ during a Popit Academy sports meet up. 

He stopped thinking for a moment and remembered who was in front of him.

His heart stopped, and he was sure his head would explode or at least crack from how warm it got. He didn’t think that it was even possible for Sackboy to get any cuter than he normally was, turns out he was wrong. Horribly wrong. 

He gulped. “You look...” he began, making Sackboy look at him. His face showing worry. 

Sackboy, being unable to speak, had to be more emotional (and sometimes dramatic) in order to get others to understand him. Newton was very good at reading him, having spent a long time studying his crush’s mannerisms in order to have a better understanding of what he meant.  
‘He thinks you don’t like it,’  
was in the back of Newton’s subconscious. He sighed, a dreamy, lovesick sigh and said “You look really, really great...” that he didn’t plan to leave his body, but it happened so fast that he couldn’t stop it, and now he was worried about the inevitable awkward silence that was soon to come.  
Not that he expected anything but silence, considering Sackboy doesn’t talk, but still. 

Instead, to his surprise, Sackboy’s fabric fluff ruffled up, like what happens to your hair when you get shocked, his beautiful button eyes (In Newton’s opinion, at least, Sackboy thought they were actually quite dull and boring) lit up, he smiled and made a gesture with his hands that was the equivalent of ‘You’re too kind.’  
This made Newton smile with relief.  
He gestured towards his bedroom door, “Would you like to come in?” Sackboy nodded and followed Newton inside. 

The two sat on Newton’s bed, Sackboy slowly but surely scooting closer to his larger counterpart. 

Newton definitely noticed. 

But he certainly wasn’t complaining. 

Instead, when Sackboy got close enough, Newton proceeded to put his arm around the small sackperson’s waist, his heart jumping as he did so, but he didn’t want to show that. He didn’t want to show his nervousness easily, so he believed that Sackboy could only see Newton’s normal confident facial expression instead of the nervousness he felt on the inside. But he was wrong, Sackboy, being so in tune with other’s emotions, knew about this nervous, but tried to comfort Newton by almost immediately cuddling into his side after he felt his arm around his waist, his eyes lighting up as he put his head on the taller’s shoulders. Said lightbulb’s face warmed and lit up slightly. He smiled warmly and used his free hand to gently hold one of Sackboy’s. He relaxed and closed his eyes, enjoying the peaceful silence. 

Sackboy held onto Newton’s hand as if he were never going to hold it again.  
And, if he were being honest with himself, he was afraid that that could be the case. 

He tended to overthink things sometimes, and was doing so now. 

‘What if he’s just doing this so a conflict won’t happen and as soon as I leave he’ll never even want to see me again?’ 

Was the first thought he had, even though if he thought about it for a second more he would’ve noticed that this thought made no sense -Newton was being very obvious with his attraction to Sackboy, he would never admit it, but his bulb had been heating up and getting brighter ever since he knew his dear chum was in his home. He thought Sackboy hadn’t noticed, but no, he was a very vigilant sackperson- He would’ve had more thoughts similar to that one, but he stopped thinking all of a sudden when Newton squeezed him fondly, switching their side hug to a full body hug, with his arms around Sackboy’s lower back. 

Sackboy did the opposite with his arms around Newton’s shoulders.  
He then put his head in the crook of Newton’s neck, his fears instantly went away and he smiled comfortably.  
After a while of this, Newton released Sackboy, much to his displeasure. 

“It’s late dear chum,” He started. “You can stay here if you like?” He offered. Sackboy nodded and gave a thumbs up, signifying he was alright with staying in Newton’s room for the night.  
This caused Newton to smile as he gently pushed Sackboy onto his side, grabbing the blanket and tucking in his lover.  
Sackboy would’ve pouted at this, but he didn’t have the heart to, considering how soft the blanket was and how comfortable the mattress was as well. 

Newton kissed Sackboy on the forehead. “Are you comfortable?”  
He asked, to which Sackboy nodded, “Alright,” He gently patted the smaller’s head, his maroon-ish brown knitted skin almost glowing in the natural light Newton emitted from his face.  
“Goodnight,” He whispered,  
“I’ll be on the couch in the living room if you need anything alright?” He stood up straight and was just about to start walking before Sackboy made a face of absolute disgust and nearly leaped out of the bed to grab Newton’s hands, persistently but gently trying to drag him into bed with him. Newton didn’t even need to ask, because he already knew the answer, but he asked anyway;  
“You want me to stay with you?”  
His precious dear chum’s face looked like it had deflated and his grip loosened. He looked his lover in the eyes and tilted his head slightly to the side. Almost as if saying ‘You...don’t want to stay with me?’  
Newton picked up on his partner’s feelings and immediately rushed to reassure him;  
“No no no! Not like that!” Once he had gotten Sackboy’s attention he calmed down and continued,  
“I definitely want to! I just didn’t know you would be comfortable with that so quickly and I was surprised is all, dear chum.” He explained. Sackboy had the facial expression of his heart melting and he smiled fondly, scooting backwards to the end of the bed and patted the -still warm- newly empty spot. Newton chuckled and took off his bowler hat, revealing purple curls much like his ‘Mumsy’s’.  
He put the hat on his desk and that was when Sackboy just realized two things: 

1) That he had never seen Newton without his hat before and  
2) Newton had hair, and it was purple. 

To him, it was beautiful. The light from his face made his hair look like it was spirally purple Give-a-Gift day morning. Newton turned off the room’s main source of light and got into bed next to Sackboy.  
His sweet, sweet Sackboy.  
He looked said sackperson in the eyes and noticed he was smirking.  
His small knitted hands were almost instantly in his curls, playing with them and such. 

They were so soft to Sackboy it was unbelievable. 

Newton gasped dramatically and his hands went up to his head, playfully swatting away his other’s. “I’m self conscious about them!” Causing Sackboy to laugh loudly. 

Well, that’s what it looked like he was doing, at least. 

The actual noise he was making was just the quick breathing someone would do trying to catch their breath while laughing their heads off. 

This raised some questions for Newton and so he sat up straight, gaining his partner’s attention. He looked up at him curiously. “So,” Newton began, “You can’t make any sound at all?” This caused Sackboy to become visibly uncomfortable, looking at the ground, then back at Newton, then back at the ground again, then back at Newton. He opened his mouth, but what came out surprised him. 

No words, at least understandable ones, but a cracked and broken sound came out of the small sackperson’s mouth. 

It caused Newton to jump; 

“Oh goodness!” He gasped, “Did that hurt?” 

To his surprise, Sackboy shook his head ‘no.’ He then proceeded to point at his chest, right where his neck and torso met. ‘His voice box!’ Newton instantly thought. “What’s wrong with your voice box?” 

Sackboy made a heart shape with his hands and broke it, he then continued to make a cutting-with-scissors motion with his hands across where his voice box area was. 

Now, call Newton a psychic, or a crazy person, but he was very sure he understood all of that. It probably helped he was very good at charades. “You suffered from a broken heart..?”  
Newton began, receiving a nod from Sackboy and continued,  
“You had a surgery to fix it...”  
again, another nod,  
“But the surgeons cut through your voice box during surgery?”  
This time a sad nod. This made Newton nearly explode in anger, but before he could get any words out about how awful the situation was Sackboy was encouraging Newton to lay down, which he did, because it was extremely late and he was going to pass out from exhaustion soon.  
Sackboy laid down next to him. Newton sighed and hugged his other, closing his eyes to dim his light, trying to keep from blinding Sackboy as he tried to sleep, because that’s never fun.  
He squeezed his partner gently, and sighed before mumbling softly,  
“One day I’ll fix it,”  
And just like that, he was dead silent. His light dimmed completely and he smiled softly in his sleep as he held onto his lover. Sackboy smiled fondly and kissed Newton’s cheek before getting comfortable up close to Newton, closing his eyes. 

Charading his voice box situation was a bit hard for him, but it was good to get it out. He felt content knowing he could trust Newton, even though he had done some bad things before, Sackboy knew he would never purposely hurt him or even think of betraying him again. At least he hoped.  
He was just about to fall asleep when he felt a kiss on his cheek too, causing him to smile stupidly.  
Just like that, he was out. 

Like a light even. 

The two had slept extremely comfortably that night, neither of them feeling the coldness of loneliness as they were unconscious. The chill that would usually run up their spines and, more often than not, keep them awake at unholy hours of the night. 

But tonight? No, tonight was probably one of the best sleeps either of them had had in a long while.  
Somehow the two sackpersons had managed to cuddle closer to each other, almost as if fusing.  
Most wouldn’t have been able to stand contact so close, but these two had managed to make it work. 

Newton was the first to wake up. He was normally an early bird anyway, being the inventor he was. After all, you couldn’t invent Bunkum’s -soon to be working!- most useful and creative inventions if you slept for more than half of the day. 

He was just about to get up and go work on his latest project -a 3D pen, more on that later- but he looked to the side and remembered that he wasn’t alone: 

His favorite sackperson in the history of his life (not counting family, because that would be unfair) was curled up on his side in a little ball with a dopey smile on his face. 

Newton forgot what he was even doing, 

oh how stupid was he to get up and disturb his other’s sleep.  
He was just too adorable for his own good. He decided to stay, at least for a minute. 

Then, all of a sudden, he had an idea! He could make breakfast for everybody! 

He smiled, he was almost as good a cook as his mother, and Nana Pud had won some serious awards for her food in some of Irene’s competitions.  
Newton just never did it very often, with all the time he spent alone on his father’s airship inventing things, whether they failed or not. 

Newton, very carefully and slowly, got out of bed, making sure he didn’t disturb his partner, and he walked into the kitchen, a little bit surprised to see his mother, but not very. Once Nana saw him, she looked mildly shocked. 

Oh dear.

“Newty!” She whisper-yelled, causing Newton to flinch. 

She sighed and softened, 

“Was he as comfortable as you were last night? I went in to get your laundry earlier this morning and you two were basically glued to each other!” 

Newton’s bulb must’ve gotten at least 10x brighter, because it managed to make his Mumsy shield her eyes with her gloved hands. “Newty! It’s not that embarrassing!” Causing Newton to huff and look the other way so he didn’t cause permanent blindness, 

“For your information Mumsy,” He started dramatically, “He seemed very comfortable! And he is by far my softest sleeping companion!” 

Silence, and then, the familiar sound of giggle/breathing. Shocked, Newton turned around, seeing exactly who he thought he’d see; Sackboy. He smiled playfully, “Oh, come here you-“ 

He picked up the smaller sackperson and spun him around, laughing along with his breathing. Newton stopped spinning after a few turns and kissed his dear chum on his soft woolen head before placing him back down again. 

His mother grunted playfully, gaining both of the sackpersons’ attention. 

She held up a few pictures. Man, that woman was really, really fast. She smiled, 

“These are going up on our walls, Newty,” 

This made Sackboy question which cat picture(s) their pictures would be next to, but it didn’t matter much as he jumped up excitedly, pointing to the pictures and then to himself.

“Oh, of course I’ll make you copies dearie,” She said, patting the smaller sackperson’s head and putting the photographs on the table, “But first, let me make breakfast.”

“Can I help Mumsy?”

“Of course.” 

Sackboy could not believe how amazing the Puds could cook:  
That was by far the best muffin he had ever eaten, along with bacon and eggs of course. 

And some apple juice, which was by far more superior than orange juice. 

After they all had eaten, Nana had made copies of her best photos and gave them to Sackboy, who admired them for a moment before storing them away in his Popit.  
He smiled widely.  
“Well I’m glad you like them, dear.”  
She smiled back at him while picking up all the leftover plates and placing them in the sink.  
Sackboy looked over at Newton from across the table, making gestures with his hands: 

A fish face, and then a mustache.  
“Oh!” He said, 

“Papa is on a business trip right now, is that what you were asking?” 

He received a nod, and went back to fiddling with his fingers while the sound of Nana washing the dishes echoed through the large kitchen. 

“Newty? Why don’t you and Sackboy get out of the house for a while? Have some fun while it’s still light outside?” 

Newton grinned slightly,  
“That’s actually not a bad idea, what do you think dear chum?” He asked, looking at his other. Said sackperson nodded enthusiastically, but then tugged on his borrowed pajamas. 

“Ah, yes, changing is a good idea before leisurely activities! ‘Once tried going out in my pajamas and when I came home they were covered in stickers! I don’t understand the obsession-“  
He noticed he was rambling and stopped, he chuckled slightly and then continued with what he was originally going to say,  
“Mumsy, are-?”  
“In the laundry room,”  
“Are my-“  
“Your socks are clean Newton.” 

“Wonderful!” 

He turned to Sackboy,  
“I’ll go get your things, you can wait by the bathroom if you’d like,” As a response, the young sackperson nodded, and Newton went to the laundry room. A few minutes later (Mostly Newton was sorting the clothes, he didn’t want a mix up to happen. ‘Eugh, don’t want to accidentally give him my socks-‘)  
Newton arrived at the bathroom door to see Sackboy casually leaning against the wall. 

He handed the freshly clean clothes to his partner -making sure that he, the rightful owner, hadn’t misplaced his socks- and received a nod as thanks as he went to his room to change into something wearable,  
Sackboy doing the same in the bathroom. 

After about four or so minutes, the two met up in the hallway, Sackboy looking at Newton’s old clothes in his arms as if asking what should be done with them.  
Newton took hold of them, mumbling a quick ‘Be right back’ before going back to his room. Not long after, he came back out of the room with an old looking tote bag and handed it to Sackboy. It was full of clothes.  
“Just keep them,”  
He stated,  
“I’m far too big for any of them now, I’m sure you can find a use for them, even if you don’t wear them. You’re very creative,”  
He chuckled fondly, and Sackboy affectionately squeezed the bag and slung it around his shoulder, smiling at his partner. “So, where would you like to go first, dear chum?” Sackboy just shrugged, signifying he was willing to go anywhere. 

To that Newton just smiled and grabbed hold of his lover’s hand, 

“Wherever our hearts take us then?” 

To which Sackboy nodded and the two smiled at each other, ready to begin the day’s adventure.


	2. Two Can Gaze Together, And Share That Wonder

Renovations have been made to Bunkum since Sackboy had last seen it, it wasn’t surprising though, when Newton was possessed he made...well, he made a very big mess...of the entire world. 

Everything was just so new, but also old at the same time. It brought as much joy to Sackboy as the first time he came here, and he even got to sightsee! Not being able to before because Newton was on a rampage. 

Sackboy wondered if Newton thought about that often, how he felt about what he did. 

He knew he was sorry, that was a fact, but does he beat himself down for it? 

Sackboy was interrupted out of his thoughts when Newton had taken them to Manglewood. Sackboy got off the boat the two had ridden there and he looked around in awe: There was so much to do here! There was a big stage in the middle of the place now, with red curtains and shiny polished wood, and a bunch of new shops and places to hang out in!   
Something caught Sackboy’s eye and he turned his head, seeing Zom Zom’s! His eyes lit up, looking at Newton, he pointed to Zom Zom’s and was nearly shaking with excitement.   
Newton smiled. “I hear he’s created some pretty crazy things while you were gone, you’ll love them, come on!” And with that, the two basically raced to get to the cute little shop. 

The two got there at about the same time, but Newton won because he opened the door and dashed in first, laughing uncontrollably like a child at the playground playing pretend.   
He held the door open for his other, who playfully hit Newton on the shoulder and laughed.   
Newton rubbed his shoulder, faking pain, “You meanie,” 

The two laughed again, walking further into the store, triggering the bell to ring, and all of a sudden, Zom Zom was right in front of them.  
“Ah! Sackboy! You’re back! Come in, come in! Everything’s for sale!” He then took notice of Newton, and hesitated for a moment, before going back to his excited self and leading the two to the main part of the shop: where all the clothes were.   
The two browsed for a minute, Sackboy by far being more excited about it, and the two picked something out for themselves and went to the checkout station. 

“Ooh! Such style!” 

Zom Zom said, ringing them up. Once the two paid for their items he added “Thank you for your purchase!” The two smiled at him, Newton muttering a ‘Thank you’, but Zom Zom refused to pay him any mind.   
Newton sighed internally, but then Sackboy grabbed his hand and ran out, smiling.   
Once the two were outside, Sackboy grabbed hold of the bracelet he bought and put it on his wrist; it had a little model of the moon on it, along with the Earth and some black beads separating them. 

He loved it. 

Newton had just bought some new gloves to replace his old ones, they were going to break soon from how much he used them. He wasn’t going to wear them at the moment, as it wasn’t really necessary, and he wasn’t even wearing his old ones anyways, but he was happy with what he had and put them in the pocket of his purple trench coat. 

Just then, Newton noticed the Space Park was open. He gasped excitedly, “Look dear chum!” Curiously, Sackboy looked to where Newton was pointing. “The space park’s open! Wanna go?” He smiled brightly and nodded, and the two were off, another race, and this time Newton won again, but only because of his excitement and love for space. 

He had been before, of course, but it would be infinitely better with somebody else, especially someone as special to him as Sackboy.   
Once his other arrived at the door, (Which really only took about five seconds or so) the two walked in, Newton nearly bouncing with giddiness at doing something he loves with someone special to him. 

The cool thing about Manglewood’s Space Park is that you don’t have to do any astronaut training, or even wear a space suit for that matter. You just walk in, sign up for a room, and you float around in there for a while in the black light. Newton went up to the front desk, 

“Ah, Newton, I see you brought Cloth Kid along, your regular room?”   
Sackboy waved at Marlon, who smiled and started a conversation with the small sackperson while Newton signed their papers for the room. 

“You see, Cloth Kid, as an actor, I’ve had to learn to take on multiple roles at once! And you’re seeing me acing ‘Front desk person for space room’,”   
He did jazz hands gesturing to his desk, 

“Basically we’re understaffed, with so many occupants of Manglewood going to Popit Academy.”   
He scratched his chin in thought,

“Actually, if I’m not mistaken Toggle and Swoop are getting degrees in Aerodynamics and Physics.”   
He then quickly added, “You should already know who’s getting which,” To which Sackboy nodded, it was pretty obvious, after all. 

“Ready to go, dear chum?”   
Sackboy smiled.  
“You’re going to love it Cloth Kid.   
Anti Gravity: The Actor’s Dream.   
So much better than wires,”   
Giving the two a thumbs up, he started walking, “Up this way! The fun awaits!” 

While the three were walking down the hallway to the room, Marlon was chatting it up about the history of the park’s name: 

“You know, we call it the Space Park, even though it doesn’t look like one, because of the fact that while everything’s floating you can treat it like a anti gravity jungle gym-“   
He just kept going and going to the point that Sackboy stopped paying attention, Newton was biting his lip in a sort of agitated way, but after a few seconds chuckled to himself internally, this was stupid, he had no reason to be upset with Marlon. He may as well have been one of the only other sackpersons to communicate with him after the possession. And honestly? Newton was more than grateful.

“Alright, here we are-“ Marlon stated, nudging Newton, he added “Now you two have fun, but not too much fun. I don’t want to have to clean up any more messes than on a normal shift, got it?” He winked and shot finger guns at the two before walking off, chuckling to himself quietly.

Newton was slightly uncomfortable by that statement, but he didn’t let it phase him. Sackboy on the other hand, did, just a little. His fabric fluffed up a bit. ‘Huh, so he does that when he’s embarrassed too, not just when he’s flattered’ Came to Newton’s mind. He shook it off and pointed at the door. Newton chuckled, “Yeah, alright, chum,” they opened the door, “Don’t let Marlon get to you next time, love, he’s just messing around.”  
Sackboy stuck his tongue out at Newton as they entered the room together, his feet coming off the ground.

He gasped, looking up at Newton, who just smiled.

His natural glow from his face was tinted purple from the blacklight above, but it was a soft purple, not the intimidating one from the possession.  
His bowler hat started to float off of his head and he laughed trying to get it back, but he failed and it flew off to the area he wasn’t lighting up with his face. 

“Oh I’ll just get that later,” He grumbled,

Looking at Sackboy, his heart melted:

His maroon-ish brown skin was now a brown-ish tinted magenta.

He was glowing. Literally even, but he was also beautiful. His red scarf-tie-thingy rose up slightly, along with his bracelet and the bag he had gotten earlier that morning. He smiled and twirled a little.

Newton was going to die.  
Sackboy was going to kill him.  
He just knew it.  
It was going to happen.

His face heated up and the purple just got brighter, Sackboy noticed, with a small smirk on his face even.

Newton took notice of how the two were drifting apart, but the whole situation was so surreal to him that it really didn’t matter. 

Sackboy opened up his Popit, gesturing to Newton to do the same.

“I can’t open mine, love,” He said somberly, causing Sackboy to look at him questionably, “It’s um, well, it’s...broken...that’s why I dropped out of Popit Academy. It’s this...condition I was born with. Popit Deficiency...” Sackboy’s face drooped. But then he got an idea!   
With a brand new determined look on his face Sackboy exited his Popit and went to his Sackpocket, grabbing his Pumpinator and changing it to the ‘blow’ setting.  
He used it to shoot himself closer to Newton, grabbing hold of him by the waist with his free arm. Newton gasped in surprise, but didn’t say anything, wondering what his partner would do next.  
In Sackboy’s mind, if the two couldn’t communicate with their Popits (They’d have to sync them in order to use the speech function) because of Newton’s condition, then he’d have to get really creative.

But that didn’t matter right now. They didn’t have to be vocal right now. They didn’t have to worry about that right now.

Right now, they’re going to enjoy themselves.

Sackboy pushed the trigger on the Pumpinator and the two spun around in circles, surrounded by the airy foglike substance emitting from said device. This caused Newton to laugh and hold onto Sackboy’s shoulders.

Hey, it didn’t have to be just one way, they could switch up the way they held each other, no biggie.   
It’s actually nice, being able to hold and be held without it being weird on either side.

Sackboy stopped pushing the trigger, causing the two to start spinning slower.  
He put his forehead on Newton’s, 

the two enjoyed the silence for a moment.

“Hey, you better be keeping it PG in here!” 

Both of them opened their eyes and looked down, seeing Marlon waving around Newton’s hat:

“Time’s up! I’ve got customers waiting! Toss me that gadget Cloth Kid,”  
Sackboy complied, pushing the Pumpinator towards the actor. Once he got it, he changed the setting to ‘suck’ and pushed the trigger, bringing the two lovebirds closer to him so he could get them down.

“Now, I’m gonna warm you Cloth Kid, walking’s going to be a bit hard-“ Newton grabbed hold of the doorframe, using it to bring himself down so he could get out. Since he’d been going to the space park for a while now (it’s a surreal experience for him alone, listening to music while you’re aimlessly floating in the dark is very calming) he was able to shake himself a little bit and he was back to being used to solid ground, but when Marlon grabbed hold of Sackboy (He’s extremely light, Marlon was actually surprised. He thought he’d weigh a little bit more,) and put him on the ground, he tried walking but almost immediately leaned to the side like he was going to fall, but Newton quickly caught hold of him before he could do so. 

“You’ve got to give it a few seconds, love. I know you’re eager and all, but you’re going to hurt yourself.”   
“Are you a couple or are you Cloth Kid’s father?” Marlon teased.   
Newton’s face warmed, but he didn’t really say anything to Marlon, who definitely noticed his friend’s embarrassment and chuckled, causing Newton to groan.   
He looked down at Sackboy in his arms, who’s soft skin fluffed once again. “Wasn’t that fun dear chum? Think you can walk now?” Once he received a nod, Sackboy was let go. He shook his legs and patted his fluffed fabric to make it go down. He took a few steps, and then proceeded to spin around, turning towards Newton and giving him a thumbs up.   
‘Yep! My legs work perfectly!’  
Newton chuckled, “Good to know dear chum! Now how about some ice cream?” 

The two proceeded to leave the Space Park and enter Darlene’s Ice Cream Parlor. You see, Newton had taken Sackboy to this very specific ice cream joint for a reason: The two most likely wouldn’t be able to see Toggle or Swoop at all that day, but Oddsock just so happened to work at Darlene’s, heck, he ran the place! Soon after Newton and his parents sent Sackboy and the rest of Bunkum’s heroes back to Craftworld, Toggle, Oddsock, and Swoop had come back.   
They missed their home. A lot.  
They had things they needed to get done back on Bunkum, such as college, in Toggle and Swoop’s case, or completing a childhood dream, such as opening an ice cream parlor In Oddsock’s case.

Sackboy understood when they left, and he didn’t try to stop them, he didn’t have the heart to.  
He didn’t know why they left until now, when they had mentioned wanting to go back to Bunkum, he had run off:

They were all in the Pod, having fun, playing board games and such, when Toggle looked at his significantly smaller friend. He sighed, gaining Sackboy’s attention. “We need to talk, Sackboy.” Toggle was a man of few words, so Sackboy instantly stopped what he was doing to pay attention to his friend. Swoop and Oddsock looked at each other warily, but then nodded, as if in agreement. 

And then, at once, all three of them said;  
“We want to go back to Bunkum.”

Sackboy’s face dropped.  
What? No, they wouldn’t just leave him like that, would they?  
No, that’s impossible!

He looked down at the floor,

...Is it?

Swoop patted her friend on the back, “Hey, are you alright?” She tried to comfort Sackboy, who angrily swatted her wing off of him and stood up, going towards the Pod Controller.   
Swoop didn’t say anything.  
Oddsock whimpered.  
“Sackboy,” Toggle said,

Sackboy looked at all of them, tears going down his face, he opened his mouth,   
but whatever words he wanted to get out only came out as broken gurgles.

He pointed at them accusingly,

‘Just go! I don’t care!’

He pushed the button and was transported to Craftworld, where he went to the factory and met up with Clive, who hugged him tightly, being the good emotional support he is.

“There there, let it all out,” He said, rubbing his friend’s back. He gasped for breath several times, clutching onto his friend’s shirt as the tears came out like a waterfall:

‘They don’t want to stay with me’  
‘Why would they?’  
‘I’m a terrible friend’  
‘Of course they wouldn’t want to stay’

‘I knew it wouldn’t last forever’  
‘I’ve always been alone’

“I know, I know,” Clive said, trying to reassure him, even if he didn’t know what was going on. He let go of Sackboy and kneeled down, grabbing onto his shoulders. “How about I make us some hot chocolate? It’s the least I can do,”   
Sackboy nodded, his face tear stained and damp. 

He went back to the Pod that night to find it empty. It’s what he had expected, but there was a part of him that thought that maybe, just maybe, his friends would be waiting here for him.

But they weren’t.  
They were gone.  
They weren’t coming back.

Sackboy, fueled by so many negative emotions, deleted everything: The Pod decorations, his outfits, all of it. He stayed in the Pod for nearly two months. Doing nothing. occasionally listening to music, but he spent most of his time just sitting, thinking about what he could’ve done wrong. He couldn’t get himself to leave,

He couldn’t get himself to do anything.

He ended up staying in that Pod for nearly two months before he couldn’t take it anymore and went to Bunkum.

Newton didn’t need to know that, though.

It was an extremely lucky coincidence that as the two walked into the parlor, Oddsock was right in front of them, just getting finished wiping off a table.

Upon seeing the two, Oddsock bounded towards Sackboy, hugging him tightly;

“Oh my god! I haven’t seen you in months! Are you okay? What happened? Why are you with Newton?” He said, earning a slightly offended ‘Hey!’ from Newton, to which Oddsock added “No offense or anything, but it’s just that no one’s seen him in months, and....I didn’t expect him to come back...” He trailed off before shaking his head and bringing Newton in for a hug, “We’ve all just been so worried, thank you-“ 

Newton was very confused.

Oddsock let go and looked at Sackboy, with hurt in his voice he nearly yelled:   
“Why wouldn’t you answer us? We tried so hard to contact you! Swoop thought-“ He teared up, “She thought you did...something really stupid, alright? You need to go talk to her, let her know you’re not dead.”   
He sighed,   
“Stay here, I’ll be right back,”   
He looked at Newton, “I already know his favorite is cookies n’ cream, what about you?”   
“Um,” Newton thought for a second, “Rocky road’s fine, thank you,”   
“No prob, go sit over there, on the house.”

He trotted off, Sackboy feeling regret for what he did to his friends as he sat down next to Newton at a table.  
Newton couldn’t bring himself to ask what had happened between the four, it wasn’t his place, and he was sure Sackboy would avoid any form of answering anyway.

So instead, Newton put his hand on top of his partner’s, rubbing his thumb in gentle circles. “You...You don’t have to explain anything to me, in any form, if you’re not ready to, but I will be here to comfort you in any way you need me, alright dear chum?” Sackboy nodded sadly.   
Oddsock came back with their ice creams,

“I’m sorry about earlier, buddy, it’s just...You have no idea how worried you made us, how worried you made Swoop. She freaked out on us,” He sighed,   
“Hear she and Togs went to college now, I’ve just kinda been left alone for a minute, ya know?” Sackboy nodded. He understood. He understood very well.  
“Anyways, I’ve got work to do, you two enjoy yourselves.” He started to walk back, but then turned around, “Oh yeah,” he stated, looking at Newton, he added, “I don’t have any idea what you’re doing with my buddy here, but I trust you not to mess up, alright dude?”

Newton thought it was weird, he knew Oddsock knew exactly what was going on, and although his tone of voice said different, he felt like he was threatening him.  
Awkwardly, he replied, “Of course, chum! Wouldn’t dream of it!”   
“Awesome!” He finger-gunned (paw-gunned?) the lightbulb sackperson and hugged Sackboy again,   
“Please, answer us next time.”  
As an answer, Sackboy squeezed his friend,

‘I will, I promise.’

Oddsock let go, “Alright, duty calls, I’ve gotta split buddy, I’ll see you around! Enjoy the ice cream!” And with that, he was gone.

Newton felt threatened. 

After the two had finished their ice creams, they walked out of the parlor and went through the portal to the Ziggurat, where they walked around holding hands.  
Sackboy noticed of the decorations around the area for the upcoming holidays:  
Sacksday, Createfest, Stuffingweek, and Give-a-gift day. So he wasn’t wrong about people being busy for the holidays earlier. Just not as busy as he would’ve imagined. 

They continued to wonder around the place, they ice skated on a frozen lake, with Newton having the most issues with balance and falling a few times, but Sackboy helped him up each time he fell.  
After that they went to Bunkum Lagoon and did some free running: Jumping from place to place and climbing around walls.   
At the end of it all the two ended up laying in the field of soft grass beside the manor, looking at the clouds, looking at each other, enjoying the peace.

Newton wanted it to stay that way forever, but he knew he couldn’t.   
It was really unrealistic.

Sackboy shot up all of a sudden, like he had forgotten something important,  
Or had an idea.  
He looked at Newton with bright, wide eyes before standing up, dragging his partner with him, much to his surprise. “Love?” he questioned, but didn’t get any other answer than a smile before being dragged along by his other.

“W-wait!” Newton stuttered out of shock, but Sackboy didn’t stop, just kept going until the two reached the portal that was used to transport the four heroes to Craftworld.

Newton got hit with a wave of insecurity.

“You want to go to Craftworld?” He received a nod, and then worried that Sackboy wanted to leave without him.  
But Sackboy made it clear he didn’t want that by tugging on Newton’s hand.  
‘Oh, thank goodness.’ He sighed internally, feeling relieved. 

“There’s something you want to show me there?”   
Sackboy nodded.  
A smile smile spread across Newton’s face. He squeezed Sackboy’s hand.

“Lead the way, Love.”

And just like that, they were off: Sackboy held onto Newton’s hand as tightly as possible and dashed through the portal,   
“WoOoAaAh-“ 

Newton had no idea how long they were going through the portal. It felt like no time had passed, yet, all time had passed.  
He floated serenely through the wormhole, kinda similar to the space park, yet, in the space park Newton could move.

He couldn’t move at the moment. His limbs were too heavy.  
But then, suddenly, the two started to drift faster.  
Then faster,  
and even faster.  
Until they were shooting through the Imagisphere at light speed, and then-

CRASH

They hit the floor, hard. Well, Sackboy was fine. He shot through the portal and landed perfectly on his feet.  
Newton landed on his back.  
At least it wasn’t his face though.  
That would’ve been hard to fix.

“Papa!” tears went down Newton’s face, a crack in his bulb. “Newton! What happened?” Captain Pud was rushing towards his son with the first aid kit, grabbing filament in case it was necessary, but mostly advanced glue and glass, as well as some bandages.   
“I was playing,” Young Newton hiccuped through his tears, “And everyone left me alone, and I g-got lost, a-and-“ “That’s enough, son.” Looking up at his father, Newton’s tears were dried with a cotton ball. “This may feel very uncomfortable for you, so hold onto this for me, okay?” Captain Pud asked, giving Newton a little stress ball that was in the kit. Newton held the ball in the palm of his tiny hand, preparing for what his father had warned. He closed his eyes tightly.  
Captain Pud had grabbed some scissors to use on the moldable glass he had invented specifically for this sort of purpose. He used a marker to trace the crack Newton had on the side of his bulb and cut his mold accordingly. Once satisfied he grabbed a glue brush, “This should hopefully just tickle, son,” He said before applying the sticky substance. Newton giggled, “Feels weird Papa,” he said. “I know, now here comes the hard part, still got your ball?” “Uh-huh”  
Captain Pud grabbed the glass mold and carefully placed it in, grabbing the bandage and applying it so his son wouldn’t get sick, and so it couldn’t fall out. Newton was gripping the ball as tightly as possible, a few stray tears coming from his eyes. “Alright! All done! You’re such a strong young man, Newton. Bunkum needs a really strong person such as you,” He ruffled his son’s hair, “Now how about we go find out what’s for dinner?”

Really, really hard to fix.   
“Hnnngghh...” Newton groaned. Sackboy immediately rushed to his side, helping lift him up. He rubbed his back slightly,   
“I’m lucky only my head’s made of glass and not my body, dear chum, that was a rough fall.” Sackboy nodded in agreement, circling Newton and checking for any injuries.   
“Oh don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine love! Back in tip top shape at any moment!” Sackboy started to breathe really fast for a moment, a giggle, which made Newton smile like an idiot. 

Most people would just say he’s smiling.

“So, what’s the plan dear chum? I’ve heard many a great tale of the fantastical Craftworld-“ 

Sackboy smiled and started walking, gesturing for his partner to follow, which he did gladly. 

The two went on to meet everyone who was important to Sackboy, (who most didn’t know what had happened to him or where he was, but didn’t ask) Larry Da Vinci, who they helped remember the name of the store he was right in front of, they visited Victoria and make a cake (Which Newton was still currently carrying with him, eating as the two wandered. It was delicious!) and then they went to The Factory Of A Better Tomorrow.   
The two heard a dramatic gasp:

“Sackboy!” Clive ran towards his friend, looking concerned, “Oh, I haven’t seen you in months! My hot chocolate wasn’t that bad, was it?” Sackboy quickly shook his head ‘No’ and Clive sighed, “Oh, that’s a relief,” He took notice of Newton, “You’ve brought a friend! Welcome to the Factory Of A Better Tomorrow! I’m Clive, Clive Handforth-“ He and Newton shook hands, “Hello chum, I’m Newton!” 

The three hung out for a minute, before they all realized Sackboy was being followed by a swarm of sackbots.  
“What’s that all about old chap?” Newton asked Clive, who just shrugged and said, “They must remember Sackboy from when the Negativitron enslaved them so long ago. He had saved them and I suppose they haven’t forgotten.”   
“Well it’s quite adorable.”  
“Indeed.”

Once Sackboy noticed all the sackbots he opened he arms, inviting them for a hug. 

What he didn’t expect was for them to all accept at the exact same time. It was by far the biggest group hug Sackboy had ever been in.

Sackboy began to ‘laugh loudly’ as he tried to hug them all back.

Man it was adorable.

Newton really is his mother’s son, because if he brought a camera with him, he would’ve taken some pictures!   
But he’ll be fine with the ones Nana took.

Once Sackboy managed to get all the sackbots off of him, he, Clive, and Newton drank hot chocolate together and told a few stories. Well, sorta. Sackboy would make certain body movements and that would bring up a story, like Copernicus, and the Pumpinator. Which had Clive ask questions about what Newton could create. It was fun.  
They even talked about the Inventathon that just ended a few hours earlier. Apparently Da Vinci won with his memory machine. He forgot how it worked at first but got the hang of it after a moment.

After all of that, there was one last place Sackboy wanted to show Newton. Someplace special to him. 

As the two wandered around aimlessly, he tapped Newton on the shoulder, gaining his attention:  
“Yes dear chum? Something up?” he asked, only to be surprised by seeing Sackboy open his Popit. His finger hovered over the Pod option. He looked up at his lover.  
“Um,” He questioned, “What’s a Pod?” 

Oh yeah, Popit Deficiency. Of course Newton had no idea what a Pod was! 

And Sackboy couldn’t explain what it was, so he lifted his hand, offering it to Newton.

“It’s a place?”  
He nodded.  
“I trust you, let’s go-“  
He took Sackboy’s hand.

Sackboy smiled and quickly hugged Newton before pushing the option, and just like that, the two were in Sackboy’s Pod.

And this time, it didn’t feel like a prison.  
Maybe because this time, he wasn’t alone in here.

“Crumbs!” Newton gasped. “What is this?” He ran towards the Pod Controller, staring at Craftworld at a distance, he then saw Bunkum: “You get to see this every time you’re here? That’s incredible!” Looking over to the right, Newton noticed a moon. ‘I wonder what that is,’ he thought, but before he could ask, Sackboy had tugged on the sleeve of his trench coat.

He turned, and saw his partner delete every single decoration that was once there before he could even remember what it looked like.

“Why’d you do that dear ch-“   
Before he could finish his sentence though, Sackboy took out the pictures he had gotten from Nana Pud that morning, gently setting them on the floor as he gathered different kinds of decorations and did the same with them, even getting some paint and stickers. 

‘Help me redecorate?’

“Oh,” Newton realized.

And so the two decorated in silence, basically each doing their own thing while silently asking, giving, and receiving opinions about what they should do. It was nice. 

It was calm.

The pictures had been put near the Pod Controller, so the next time Sackboy used it, he’d be able to see the pictures and smile.

Has it really only been the first day of their relationship? It’s strange how fast it went, yet also how long it felt. 

Sackboy really wasn’t ready to send Newton back home just yet, but he knew he had to, especially when he said  
“I believe it’s best I be going back to the manor, dear chum, Mumsy’s bound to be worried if I stay for any longer...” Sackboy understood. And he wouldn’t throw a fit, he was going to be a mature adult. He went over to the Pod Controller and put in the coordinates for Stichem Manor, and he was just about to push the button to send him back, but hesitated.

He tried again.

But also hesitated.

Newton noticed.

Both times.

He went up to his lover and hugged him from behind, whispering soothing words to him,   
“I’ll be back to visit you all the time, dear chum! No doubt about it! No need to worry,” He turned Sackboy around, “And hey, how about tomorrow I can come back here and we can invent something together?”   
Sackboy smiled widely, much more energetic than the other times he had today, and nodded happily, he pulled Newton in for a kiss -on the lips this time- earning a shocked gasp of surprise from Newton before it quickly turned into a pleased sigh as he kissed back, he wrapped his arms around his lover, who did the same in return. It felt so right. The warmth and comfort from the kiss made butterflies swarm in Newton’s stomach, and Sackboy felt as though his insides were being electrocuted, but in a good way.

The two pulled away, Newton’s face bright and his eyes glazed. “See you tomorrow then?” Sackboy silently giggled and nodded, holding up two fingers.

“Tomorrow at 2. Got it!” Newton quickly kissed Sackboy goodbye, wrote done coordinate numbers in a notepad he had brought with him for his portal back home, mainly so he’d be able to get to and from the Pod, and pressed the action button on the controller, and POOF.

It’s like he was never even there.

Sackboy sighed contently, still feeling the electric feeling in his stomach and the feel of lips against his own, and he looked around the Pod. One side was covered in all sorts of space things: Decorations, models, stickers, you name it. There were also a few math equations here and there. Newton’s side.

Sackboy had all sorts of different things on his side: A few space stickers, like rocket ships, music notes, rainbows, pictures of him and his friends, pictures of Bunkum and Craftworld, postcards, etc. 

There was a part where both of their decorations collide: Where space and math met music and color. 

It was beautiful.

Sackboy looked at the time and gasped quietly at how late it was, he got his sleeping bag (It felt just like any other bed, but it was just so tiny) and put it in the middle of the room.  
He turned off the lights and got settled in, closing his eyes.

For the most part, he had relatively really good dreams about what was to come the next day.

The tote bag Newton gave him with all of his old clothes sat by the Popit controller. Sackboy planned to put them into his Popit soon, he really liked them.


	3. We Are Forever Imiting Sparks Of Imagination

That morning was like Give-a-gift day for Newton. 

He awoke at 6:00 A.M. as per usual, not counting the night prior with Sackboy, and he got out of bed. 

Feeling too tired to put on his usual trench coat and hat, Newton just kept on his pajamas and slid his feet into some slippers, instead of his boats with cardboard soles.

Making an attempt to comb through his hair and failing, Newton grabbed the keys to his airship and slowly walked out of his door, ready to begin working on some of his current projects.

Newton groggily wandered the hallway, too sleepy to really know where he was going, he barely even remembered where he was!  
He rubbed his eyes, yawning, and walked into the door in front of his room: the bathroom.

Going towards the sink, he turned on the water and splashed himself in the face, jolting when he felt icy cold water on his otherwise relatively warm bulb. He hissed quietly at the shock, but at least now he was awake.

Looking into the mirror, Newton took note of his appearance: his light, dull from sleep, was starting to gain brightness as he was becoming more aware, and his hair was an absolute mess (not that he expected differently, he just woke up, and his hair was usually a mess anyways, because Newton always covered it with his hat).

He looked exhausted.  
‘I guess that’s what portal jumping does to someone,’ Newton thought.

He dried off his face, then proceeded to to exit the bathroom, walking down a flight of stairs to get to the front door of the manor.  
Once he reached the door, Newton opened it, walking outside and sighing with relief at the feeling of the wind against his cotton white skin.

Walking to the back of the place he called home, Newton spotted his parked airship his father had given to him, Captain Pud had gained a more upgraded one himself.  
He made it of course, and gave his old model to his son, who had added ‘a few refinements of his own.’

Newton remembered watching his father build this airship when he was around 12 years old in awe: putting up portraits of the family, installing machinery and cool mechanisms, even letting Newton help paint, but do to his Popit Deficiency, and the fact that Newton didn’t know how to use Popit paint yet, Captain Pud had to get his son material paint, which was a bit inconvenient, but seeing his son so happy to help out was worth it. A smile so genuine like that is so, so worth it for a parent. No matter the trouble to get it.

Newton smiled, a bittersweet smile,

He’s 23 now.

Man that ship is old.

His breath hitched as the thought of his father.   
He entered the aircraft and plopped onto his desk.  
‘What does he think of me now...’ Newton thought.   
What if there really are no business trips? What if Captain Pud is just lying about helping that scientist get his cultural research done for Bunkum?

What if he’s just gone all the time because he hates him?

“Oh, god,” Newton cried, his head hitting his desk as bright yellow tears began to stream down his face.  
Regret tears.  
Sorry tears.  
“Of course, that’s ought to be it,” he murmured,   
“I’m such a disappointment, of course he wouldn’t want to live in the same house with the one that ruined the family name-“  
“ISAAC NEWTON PUD!!!” a voice boomed, slamming open the door of the airship harshly, the wood creaking under the weight of not only the words, but of a body as well.

“You know for a fact that isn’t the case...” The voice said seriously, the word ‘fact’ being laced with the venom of a million vipers.

Newton screeched out of fear, falling out of his chair and onto the floor. He looked over to his door,  
“Papa!” He gasped, fear filling his eyes, “You’re back,” he whispered, shocked and breathless.  
He received a stern look from his father,  
“We’ll talk about this later, boy, but your mother made breakfast, and we’re going to have a meal together, as a family.”  
“Um, y-yes sir,” Newton stuttered, getting up from his spot on the floor and dusting himself off, following his father back into the manor.

All three of the Puds sat together at the table, Newton feeling slightly awkward and embarrassed, considering what had just happened between him and his father.  
‘Is he mad? Disappointed? Oh god is he going to give me a lecture? Ground me? I’m 23! Oh dear...He just came home too...’

“So, Newton,” Captain Pud started, snapping his son out of his thoughts,   
“I brought you back a little something from my trip,” his tone was still serious, but not a mad serious,

it was more of a somber serious.  
Strange.

“I know I’ve been coming and going a lot now lately, so think of it as an apology.”   
Newton’s jaw dropped.  
Was his father serious?

Well, of course he was, but that’s insane!

‘Right after I thought he...’ Newton shook that thought out of his head, a small smile forming on his face,  
‘He does care.’

“But, before we do any of that,” he added, smirking, his mischievous side coming out,  
“Tell me more about this boyfriend of yours,”

The whole world stopped, Newton’s face brightened, and Nana Pud was confused, “How did he-?” she mumbled to herself as Captain Pud continued,  
“It’s not often my son doesn’t blind somebody with his nonstop blushing, so he cares enough to look past that,” He leaned over the table, looking his doofus of a son in the eyes,  
“Who is he?” he teased.  
Newton’s face brightened more, and he spluttered nonsense, trying to get out coherent words;  
“What? How-Who told you? I don’t-“ He looked towards his mother, who was buttering her toast. Once she noticed her sons gaze she said “It wasn’t me, dearie, I’ve been busy with hosting sleepovers.”  
“She didn’t tell me, son,” Captain Pud’s smirk widened as he leaned back into his chair,

“I was at the academy before I came here, talking to Larry about your options, (“Wait, what ‘options?!’) and he mentioned hearing about you and your encounter with Oddsock at Darlene’s yesterday while on a date. Of course, he didn’t remember who with, poor fellow can’t even remember his own name sometimes.” Of course, Oddsock probably told Toggle and Swoop. 

Toggle doesn’t talk much, the only words Newton has ever heard come out of him was when he had captured Sackboy under the possession: “You bastard! I’ll rip you apart-!”  
But by then he was gone. Through the doors of a semi-well made fortress. -‘It wasn’t made too terribly, they wouldn’t have gotten through if it wasn’t for those -thankfully- moose bolts on the doors,’-

It was unlikely Toggle said anything to anyone else, so it’s much more accurate to say Swoop said something, and then word got out.

But Newton didn’t have it in him to be mad, people would’ve found out anyway, he’s just worried about how people would treat his lover.

Afterall:

Newton’s the bad guy. And Sackboy’s good.  
More than good, even.  
Perfect.

What if people start treating him strange because of the two being together? Ignore him the way they ignore Newton? Call him names, trip him, even go as far as to write badly done news reports on him?   
It made him worry.

He anxiously messed with his eggs.  
What if people think Newton is trying to use Bunkum’s savior to his advantage? He nearly threw up at the thought.  
‘Yeah, right.’ He scoffed himself, ‘He could have my head on a stick if he wanted. He’s much tougher than he looks.’  
He groaned and shoved an egg in his mouth, 

“Oh come on, son, you can tell me, you know I don’t judge.” He backtracked, “Well, I guess it really depends on who it is, Vanessa from your senior year of high school? I hated her with a passion, Toby was funny, but that boy didn’t know how to treat you right, and don’t get me started on Bra-“ “Papa!” Newton groaned melodramatically, “Oh! sorry son! Continue,” Captain Pud chuckled.

“Ugh, you’ll think it’s weird...” Newton fumbled with his hands,  
he sighed.  
“It’s um...it’s..Sackboy-“ he whispered, embarrassed beyond his years.  
And to his surprise, his father smiled at that-

“Finally my son’s gained some taste! I was worried you started going out with, I don’t know, Marlon or something-“  
“PAPA!” Newton gasped in disgust,

“Marlon is my best friend, not to mention like, 6? 7 years older than me? I don’t like that age gap.”

Captain Pud chuckled, nodding in understanding. “So, how’d that date go son?”  
Nana Pud smiled, finally inserting herself into the conversation by grabbing the photos she took of the two boys the morning before and giving them to her husband.

“Look for yourself,” her smile got slightly wider in excitement.  
Captain Pud smiled too, happy to see his wife smiling. 

Happy to see his wife at all.

He took hold of the pictures and looked them over,  
Newton holding up Sackboy in his arms, spinning him around, and kissing him on the forehead before putting him down.  
‘Adorable’ he thought, ‘but,’

“I’m glad you two look so happy together, but don’t you think you’re going a bit fast? I mean, if yesterday was the first date-“ 

“They’re young,” Nana said, cutting off her husband, “Let them have fun,” she gently elbowed her husband, smirking, “We were like that once before finding our footing as a couple.”   
Captain Pud could only smile at the memories, “I suppose you’re right, honey, we were like that weren’t we?”   
Nana sighed dreamily, 

“Ah, young love! I remember when I was your age, Newty, all the shenanigans your father and I got into- Oh! Like the time we-“ “Mumsy...” Newton groaned, embarrassed that now both of his parents were acting like this.  
“Alright, alright! Finish your breakfast.” Nana smiled in understanding. She never liked her parents acting that either.

And so the Puds enjoyed their breakfast, they finished a bit later than they should have, having spent most of the time talking about Captain Pud’s trip, but they didn’t care:

“Ah, you would not believe how wonderful it is in the Wondermint Mountains: You walk in, and immediately you’re greeted by the smell of peppermint. I was doing most of my work while drinking their positively amazing peppermint tea, oh it was to die for!” Captain Pud exclaimed, proceeding to explain more about helping out this scientist with their cultural research for Bunkum by getting them information on all of the planet’s different locations. The Wondermint Mountains were the second to last location Captain Pud would be visiting for the scientist’s research.

Newton had always been interested in the idea; he didn’t really have a way to learn about the different cultures of Bunkum, so this research could really come in handy for Newton’s inventions.  
Because after all, if he knew about all of Bunkum’s cultural differences, he’d be able to create helpful inventions accordingly.

“What are the people like there?” said lightbulb asked his father, who smiled and answered,  
“They’re all just as sweet as Sackboy up there, some of the kindest folk I’ve ever met.”

Newton couldn’t help but grin at the mention of his partner, his heart warming at the sound of his name.

“Ooh! What kind of cats do they have?!” Nana Pud eagerly asked, successfully changing the subject of conversation,

“Oh, don’t get me started, they’re huge! And their coats are all swirly like peppermints-“  
As Newton’s parents spoke about the mountain cats, he just sat there, zoning out a little, thinking about how happy he was that his family was all together again-

‘Just one last trip, and Papa will be able to stay home for months!’ ‘I’ll be able to make up my mistakes and set things right with him,’

‘And maybe even myself too.’ 

After a while, the family had finally finished their breakfast, and Nana began to gather up the plates, “Alright,” she said, getting up from her chair, “You boys wash these, Ill be off to take Monty to the vet, poor soul’s been extra wheezy lately.” She put the dishes in the sink, the clink of them nearly echoing in the large room, and proceeded to leave the kitchen, calling “Monty!” while she was at it. At first it made Newton flinch, making his father chuckle. He got up, as well, “Alright son, help me with these dishes before we head out too.”  
Confused, Newton sputtered “Go?” “Where are we going?” as he walked up to the sink, turning on the water and grabbing the sponge.  
“My airship.” He grabbed the other sponge and began working on the dishes alongside his son, “We haven’t spoken heart to heart...well, in a while, and it’s best we do.” he sighed, “Ugh, I’m not the best at speaking, son, but the point is that I care about you, a lot, and, uh, well, you know-“   
Newton smiled.

“I know what you mean,”

“It’s just, ever since ‘the incident’, I’ve been going on all these work trips. Heck, I would’ve loved to have been home when you finally got a boyfriend in what, 2? 3 years? Well, I suppose any partner at all in in the past three years-“ He chuckled slightly, “The point is,” he said, looking at his son, who stopped what he was doing to look at his father, “I’ve missed my son.” 

The two finished the dishes and began to head out, once they reached the airship Captain Pud unlocked it, gently pushing Newton in with an “Alright, in you go,” 

As he entered the aircraft and looked around, Captain Pud said “Close your eyes” in a way that meant something really exciting was going to happen, and Newton complied, smiling, sitting in his father’s desk chair. He covered his face with his hands for good measure.

“You’re going to love this,” Captain Pud said, almost giddily, as he rummaged through some boxes, searching for the item he had specifically gotten for his son during his most recent trip.  
Once he found what he was looking for, he made an ‘Aha!’ sound under his breath, he stepped closer to his son, “Okay son, you can open your eyes now.”

“I really hope this isn’t another boiled egg again,” Newton joked, with a serious undertone, memories of his eighth birthday party coming to the front of his mind.  
The 23 year old opened his eyes to see his father holding a box covered in wrapping paper.   
Confused, he said “Why’d I have to close my eyes if it was already wrapped?”  
“Suspense.” his father answered bluntly.  
“I like it to be more of a surprise, now go on, open it-“ he said, handing the little box to his son, who held it gently, beginning to carefully unwrap it.  
He opened the box and gasped.

“Papa? Are you serious? You got me this?”

“Of course, I know how much you love them, you’re basically collecting!”

Newton took the playing cards out of the box, they -of course, because his father knows him so well- were space themed. He smiled, a nostalgic smile, as he held the cards for a moment before putting them in his pocket.

Captain Pud held open his arms, offering a hug to his son.   
Newton basically ran into them, holding his father tightly. It was at this moment that the young lightbulb realized that he was slightly taller than his father, who he had thought all his life was the tallest person in the world, no one could be taller than him.  
And now he was.  
It was strange thought that didn’t matter that much, but it was stuck in the back of Newton’s mind.

“I thought you’d like them, you’ve always had a thing for playing cards.” Captain Pud smiled, tightening his hold on his son slightly, “It was actually pretty difficult to find those specific ones in the sea of mint swirl themed playing cards. And I won’t even begin to talk about the literal mountain of regular ones-“ The two laughed. Newton, for once in so so long, felt protected, like nothing could possibly hurt him while he was with his father.

“Thank you, Papa,”  
“No,” Captain Pud’s voice cracked, “This is the least I could do.” Before Newton could ask his father if he was alright, he began to rub circles on his son’s back, “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t left you, or your mother for that matter, this whole Titan situation wouldn’t have happened-“ Newton was completely dumbfounded when he felt a wet drop hit his shoulder.

There’s no way. None, no, that makes no sense-  
His father was crying? His father, Captain Pud, greatest explorer Bunkum has ever known, bravest of the brave, crying on the shoulder of his ‘slim-witted son?’ 

Captain sighed heavily, “I should have been there for you, I’m sorry.”   
Newton’s breath hitched, his hands had a vice like grip on his father as the tears began to slip from his eyes, too.  
“And I shouldn’t have released them, I was dumb, I should’ve just...If I hadn’t thought...I thought they would’ve changed after being trapped for so long, that they would’ve wanted to help...” he momentarily lost his breath as all the bad memories flooded his mind, “I thought it would make people see that I wasn’t some...some incompetent oik! That I wasn’t some moron that can’t make things because of my condition-and I thought that maybe, maybe I’d make you proud...”  
His father began to wipe away his tears with his hands gently, releasing his son from their embrace. Newton’s light was rapidly changing opacity, and his eyes were full of regret and pain.

“Son,” he said, causing Newton to look at him,  
“I’ve always been proud of you, since the very day you were born.” 

This caused the younger to make a sound of pain and his knees gave out, his father catching him instantly. He put him back on his feet and smiled,   
“Now how about we clean you up and fly around Bunkum?”  
Newton nodded, wiping his face, but mostly just smearing tears around his bulb, “Yeah, but we have to be back around 2...I promised Sackboy I’d come over,”  
“Of course, see if you can bring him back to the manor, I’d like to have a word with the boy dating my son.” 

Newton wondered how that would go, wouldn’t that just be an awkward one-sided conversation?  
His father was smart, he probably already had an idea of what to do. He knew that whatever happened though, that Captain Pud was just looking out for his boy, so Newton didn’t mind his father wanting to talk to his partner.

And so father and son flew on the airship together, circling the places of Bunkum Newton loved, and talking about, well, just about anything and everything, about the things they wanted to do later, more about the mountains, the holidays, etc.  
Just busy enjoying themselves.

Sackboy had always tried to not think about love for the longest time.

He didn’t want to love someone who couldn’t understand him. Most sackpeople didn’t, but that was okay. Sackboy didn’t have time to care, he was a bit busy saving the world and all anyhow and he refused with all his being to make someone worry while he was doing so. 

It’s the worst feeling in the world, even hypothetically, to have someome worrying about you dying trying to save their life.

So relationships have always been on the bottom of the priority list, but that doesn’t mean Sackboy never thought of them,

it doesn’t mean Sackboy never stayed up at night unable to sleep because of the loneliness he felt.

It doesn’t mean that he never thought of anyone in that sort of way either. In fact, he had had many crushes, but they were all short lived, considering Sackboy never stayed in one place for too long, wether it be for something big such as something regarding the Alliance or even something as small as going to Victoria’s lab to test out newly added features for the cake gun.

But maybe now things have changed. Maybe things have finally settled down, at least for now. It had been this way for a few months at least.

Sackboy had been thinking about it for a while, not too long before the whole Newton fiasco had occurred the night before.

Sackboy had actually been thinking about a lot of things: go figure one of his topics of thought happened to be Newton. His first initial excitement of gaining a new friend, and then the giddiness he felt from being called ‘Dear chum,’ a name he’d never been called before, and the fact that only he had that name made him feel special. He even thought about the heartbreak of being betrayed and lied to when Newton opened the tea tin holding the Titans.

Of course, Sackboy had already forgiven Newton about all of it. Even the several times he had tried to kill him and his friends, because he didn’t have the heart to hold a grudge against someone who wasn’t even aware of his own actions,

but, oftentimes late at night he would think about how Newton betrayed him. How he was so willing to kill him off and use him just like that.

It really hurt.

Yes the two made amends, became lovers even, but that doesn’t mean Sackboy completely trusts him. He is wary about what could happen, even though it makes him feel guilty to think about it, because he wants to trust Newton, he really does. But he can’t stop his thoughts from wandering sometimes:

‘What could happen?’  
‘What does the future have in store for us?’  
‘What if it’s all some sick, twisted, really thought out evil plan?’

Now, he didn’t plan to think any of these things,

-well, I guess you can never actually plan to think anything, can you?

A strange thought, but not one for right now-

but they were triggered: 

When Sackboy had woken up that morning, it was because of a nightmare. 

Something had jostled the Pod that night, maybe some lost creativity, and it subconsciously made Sackboy think the Negativitron was back;

in his dream, he was running around on his Moon, having fun and creating things of course, when all of a sudden all of his creations were being destroyed by some unknown force right in front of his eyes. 

He looked around, trying to find out why his things were going missing, when all of a sudden he felt terrible cold shivers going down his spine at a very familiar voice:

“You cannot truly defeat me,” the voice was like a snake, slithering all over the place and hissing.

“I am you-“ the monster said right in Sackboy’s non-existent ear, but when he turned to look, he wasn’t there.

‘What?’ 

“I’ve seen it all, Vanity, Insecurity, Short-Temperedness and Self Absorption, but you,”

“Why, you’re special.” the voice threatened.

“You’re afraid.”

The Moon shook, creations crumbled, and Sackboy couldn’t breathe. He ran the other direction, dodging fallen debris and fire coming from the Negativitron that was right on his trail.

Wait, was it always able to do that?

It didn’t matter, all Sackboy could do was run, and keep running. He ran through a portal, it didn’t matter how it got there, but thank goodness it was, 

nothing made any sense.

He landed on a picnic blanket in a large, grassy field. “Oh! There you are dear chum! I was wondering when you’d arrive!” Confused, Sackboy looked at Newton.

“What’s the matter? Don’t want to speak to me today? Is something wrong?” 

“What?”

Sackboy gasped, putting his hands to his mouth.  
“How did I-? No, I can’t- That is not possible whatsoever-“   
Now Newton looked confused,

“Are you okay dear chum? Did you hit your head or something? Surely you haven’t forgotten about our picnic have you? We’ve been planning this for two weeks!” Sackboy grabbed Newton’s hand, desperately trying to get him to run with him, “The Negativitron! It’s coming!” Newton just shook his head in concern,

“What’s that? I can’t quite hear you Love,”

his light began to turn purple, like when he was possessed, yet somehow, much more terrifying. 

“Let’s just enjoy our get together, like how we planned!” He sat down, dragging Sackboy with him, and putting him into his lap. Sackboy couldn’t move. Not one bit.

Not even twitch his fingers.

He was scared.

All of a sudden, Sackboy began to feel a terrible pain in his shoulder.

His head turned violently against his will, and he saw some of his worst fears combined into one complete entity: Possessed Newton and the Negativitron as one. A horribly stitched amalgamation that smiled as it looked into Sackboy’s button eyes. It-That Thing bit into his shoulder, its sharp claws tracing the smaller’s stitches possessively, “You’re Afraid.” the creature laughed, “And it’s positivity wonderful!” its teeth sank in deeper, and Sackboy was unable to move again, 

perhaps from fear, or perhaps from some unknown force.

With a quick snap of its head, that monster ripped Sackboy’s arm clean off.

He screamed in pain, but no sound came out.

Not even a gurgle or a whimper.

Not even pained breathing.

And that’s when he noticed,

He’d stopped breathing.

With a gasp, Sackboy jumped up from his sleeping bag, eyes full of tears and a vice like grip on his arm. He had managed to undo a few threads, but it was easily fixable. Taking a few moments to breathe, the small sackperson relaxed. He was okay, just a nightmare. The Negativitron is gone, Newton isn’t possessed. Everything’s okay.

Sackboy gasped when he checked the time; Noon? That can’t be, he never wakes up that late! He sighed, there wasn’t much he could do about it could he? So it’s best to just let it go. 

Opening up his Popit, Sackboy got what he needed to fix his loose threads, once he was done with that, he went up to his Pod Controller, 

his Moon was always the best way for him to express himself with creations. 

Pushing a few buttons, Sackboy transported himself to his Moon, wandering around the empty plain wondering what he should create: 

He had the ability to make anything he wanted, live out his wildest fantasies, dreams, and ideas, but Sackboy was smart;

If he wasn’t careful he could be sucked into an imaginary world and go insane, he’d seen it happen to enough folk to know the dangers of Creation. 

They called it CDD, Create Delusionality Disorder. Most who suffered from it on Craftworld were sent to Eve’s Asylum for treatment, the poor souls. 

Sackboy shook those thoughts out of his head so he could focus, he didn’t have long until Newton came over and he needed to express his emotions somehow or he’d have a really bad day.

A picture-

Yeah yeah yeah, that could work! Make it, delete it, gone! 

Simple!

He opened up his Popit and grabbed a nice soft sponge that’d work as a cushion to sit on as well as an easel and a canvas.

After setting everything up, Sackboy sat on his sponge, contemplating what he should draw that’d convey how he felt-

‘Maybe a happy ending to my nightmare?’

‘That’s actually not a bad idea!’

He smiled, grabbing the colors he needed to fix up his nightmare into a dream.

And then he thought about that...monster.

That Tragedy. 

Yeah, that’s what he’ll call it. A fusion name between Newton and Negativitron would sound really weird. 

NegaNewton? No...

Newtontron? 

-Actually that’s kind of funny-

Newtivitron!

Sackboy chuckled at these ideas, feeling much better than he had earlier.

Newton held onto the railing of the airship tightly. The winds were very strong today, but it was nice.

The wind swept through the young man’s hair, leaving his curls more of a mess than what they usually were.

Newton nearly obsessed over having his hair neat for the most part, but he’s such a messy person all the time -It doesn’t really help that he’s always wearing his hat- that he’s learned to stop caring.

He looked down, seeing Needlepoint Peeks whooshing past him. He smiled. 

Bunkum is really beautiful, why would anyone want to destroy this?

Why would he ever-

He just felt so calm, it was nice.

“Oh!” He gasped, being brought out of his thoughts, “Papa!” he called, quickly going towards the control room of the ship.  
“Hmm?” He father sounded,   
“What time is it?” Newton asked, 

“1:45, but don’t worry, we’re just about back at the manor!” Captain Pud had to shout over the wind.

Newton smiled, he was so excited to see his dear chum again,

he was basically just a lovesick puppy.

His father noticed his behavior and broke his train of thought,

“Ah, your mother was right, Newton. We really do act similar. 

I don’t know much about Sack, but I acted just like you when I was young and met your mother,” He sighed contently, “Good times.”

The two smiled to each other.

Just then the two reached Stichem Manor, Captain Pud landed the aircraft and Newton jumped off, running inside and putting on some jeans and a white T-shirt, not even bothering with his hat, it didn’t matter, it was just going to be him and Sackboy today, and he didn’t want to chance losing it if he exploded something. Which was likely.

While he was at it Newton grabbed some of his index cards of ideas from his desk and put them in his pocket. 

Newton rushed to the bathroom to fix his hair. It didn’t work. He groaned, trying to fix it in vain before giving up with a frustrated grunt. He took a breath and looked in the mirror in front of him.

‘Take a look in the mirror, what do you think?’ The demons of the young man’s head asked, his light flickering for a moment out of shock at the memory.

“I think,” said young man started, standing up straight, staring himself into his reflection’s eyes, drowning out his negative thoughts,

“That my dear chum isn’t going to care about my hair and neither should I. Today is a day that we’re going to have fun, and I will not ruin it with this unnecessary negativity!”  
And with that being said, Newton’s demons shut their mouths.

At least for now.

He smiled, walking out of the bathroom. He walked to the front door, about to open it, but then remembered that he needed to let his parents know before he left,

‘Oh crumbs! Nearly forgot!’

“Papa! Mumsy! I’ll be on my way now!”  
He opened the door,   
“I’ll be back soon! I love you!”

He then remembered that his mother wasn’t home. 

He really was forgetful sometimes. 

He shrugged it off and went to open the door.

But before he could exit the house he heard a small crash before seeing his father rush down the stairs.

Once he reached his son he put his hands on his shoulders,

“Remember what we talked about boy, I want you and Sackboy here by 10. And that’s at the very latest, you hear me?” he emphasized the word ‘and’-

Newton nodded, “Yes sir,” he said.

“Newton,” Captain scolded, making his son worry slightly, did he say something wrong?

“Just call me ‘Dad.’”

He paused.

“Or ‘Papa,’ you seem to prefer that-“ He was cut off with a hug,

“Okay Dad.”

He instantly stopped rambling and smiled, hugging his son back tenderly.

He chuckled.

“Okay Son.”


	4. So, Let’s Spark Together

After their moment, Newton and Captain Pud let go of each other and the younger of the two exited the door, going to the portal in the backyard. He couldn’t use the back door, as it was broken by one of Nana Pud’s little robot inventions, which kinda sucked, but walking was good for Newton, so he didn’t complain about the stuck door.

Getting out his notepad, Newton put the Pod coordinates into the machine besides the portal, making sure to save them (along with making sure not to delete the ones for Craftworld) before stepping in and serenely floating through the void.

As soon as Newton reached the end of the portal, his feet touched the ground and he felt excited as he exclaimed;

“Hello dear chum! Are you-“

“excited to make something together...?"

His voice got quiet as he soon realized he was alone.

He looked around the smallish space, proceeding to put his hand on his non-existent chin, his other going to his hip.  
Looking at the floor quizzically, he murmured,

“Huh. That’s quite odd isn’t it...He’d said-well, no, that isn’t the right word- ah, what would it be? Ugh! it doesn’t matter! That isn’t the point!” He shook himself of his rambling, “Where’s my chum?” 

He walked around the Pod curiously, concerned as to where his boyfriend was-

‘Huh, it doesn’t actually sound that weird. Boyfriend.’ He can use that can’t he?  
I mean, that is technically what he is...

Newton sighed, stopping his movement,  
“Okay, where could my...boyfriend be?” he said, testing out the new word while he was at it. 

Yeah, it didn’t feel so weird saying it out loud after all.

“Perhaps he got caught up in something important...” He looked around the room once more:

Newton had always been good at paying attention. Sure, he wasn’t the best at foresight most of the time -especially if you consider what had happened with the Titans- but he wasn’t ignorant.

He went up to the Pod Controller, smirking slightly at seeing their pictures to the side of him.  
Upon further inspection he noticed a letter, the writing on the envelope was faded, so it must’ve been pretty old, or maybe the handwriting was just very light, but he could make out that it was addressed to Sackboy.  
‘Odd. Who writes letters in space?’ Newton thought before going back to the controller, not thinking much of it.  
It was Sackboy’s business, he didn’t need to get into all that, kinda like the situation with his friends,  
‘If he was comfortable with me knowing, he’d find a way to let me know what’s going on, it’s not my place to force him.’ was Newton’s ideology.  
Refocusing on the task at hand, Newton grabbed the joystick of the Controller, moving it out of curiosity to see what would happen. To his surprise, he was instantly directed to ‘My Moon.’ He remembered it from the day before of course, but still hadn’t a clue as to what it was.  
Newton squinted at what he saw, mumbling to himself,  
“Unamed Level?...What does that mean?”  
Upon further examination, Newton noticed something,  
“Oh! It’s active! Sackboy’s there!” He was just about to push the square button on the Controller, as the screen/window(?) in front of him directed, but he began to question himself before doing so;  
“Wait a minute...he could be busy...What’s he doing up there?” He whined, similar to the time the two had met in Needlepoint Peaks:

‘What are you doing in there? We don’t have all day!’

“Well by golly I guess I’m finding out-!” he pushed the button, a bit too aggressively, he’ll admit, but not enough to break it at least-

He gasped when he was teleported to this completely empty plain of vast nothingness, tripping over his own two feet:  
“Ahck-!” he made an incoherent sound as he nearly fell, but thankfully catching himself.

He made a stressed sound as he took in a breath, standing upright once more and dusting himself off. 

Newton’s loud disruption had alerted Sackboy, who was simply playing some calming music as he recreated his nightmare into a nice little fantasy when all off a sudden he heard sounds only some maniac

-Turning around, he saw Newton-

okay, so only a very specific maniac, could make.

He looked at his partner quizzically, wondering why he was there, when suddenly his mind was cleared of its fog as he opened his Popit, it’s red glow gentle, and he saw the time-

2:26.

Oh, he didn’t expect to be doing this for so long,

exiting his Popit, Sackboy looked at Newton apologetically, who simply just walked forward, seeming almost breathless.

He held onto Sackboy’s shoulders-

“Sackboy! Dear Chum that was- wow, that was very-I can’t believe-!” he vomited incoherently, before taking a second to think about what he was saying before speaking.

Noticing Sackboy’s artwork, which was far enough that he couldn’t make out anything but a few of the bright colors, Newton asked-

“Is that what you were working on in here?”  
Sackboy nodded, and Newton continued,

“I didn’t mean to cause any confusion old chap, I came here-to your Pod, I mean- and you weren’t there, so I went up to that...computer-controller thingamabopit, and it led me here-“

he stopped, looking around for a moment-

“Uh, where is here, Dear Chum?”

To this, Sackboy put his hand on his hip and thought about how to reply, Newton’s arms now at his sides.

Getting an idea, Sackboy grabbed hold of Newton’s hand and made him follow him to his painting. Newton took a second to look at it-

Him and Sackboy having a picnic together, everything was bright and sunny and they were smiling brightly-  
Without a second thought, Sackboy grabbed it and put it on the ground, getting a bit of paint smudged on the picture and paint all over his fingers.

He opened up his Popit, grabbing some paper and a pencil, and he sat on the ground, drawing a picture to hopefully get Newton to understand.

Newton sat next to him, watching him create something so easily, so quickly-

Like it was nothing.

Newton couldn’t even draw a circle without a compass, or a straight line without a ruler-

After a moment, Sackboy showed his paper to Newton, a moon, him standing on top of it, with his Popit open, and all sorts of creations around him.

“So you create things here?” He asked, looking Sackboy in the eyes now, to which the smaller nodded eagerly.

“Well, that certainly makes what we plan to do today so much easier doesn’t it?” Newton smiled, going into one of his jean pockets-

“I’ve brought a few ideas along with me if you don’t have any at the moment-“ he said, bringing out his index cards that he’d brought with him from earlier.

He looked at the first card, his 3D pen idea, “Oh!” he calmly exclaimed, “I’m actually working on this one currently, you may find it a bit boring though...” he went to put it back in his pocket, but Sackboy reached for it, making Newton stop in his tracks.

Sackboy carefully grabbed hold of the index card, reading it over, and his eyes lit up: A 3D pen could help Newton and so many others with Popit Deficiency! Since they can’t Create with Popits, a 3D pen would allow them to do what everyone else could! It’d be revolutionary, even if the condition itself was extremely rare-

It would also be really fun to make, especially with helping in mind.

Sackboy eagerly gestured to the rest of the cards in Newton’s hand, wanting to see the rest of his ideas, knowing for sure the rest would be just as creative or more as the one he just saw.

‘Maybe he got more creative after the possession?’ Sackboy thought, but didn’t think more of it as he didn’t know how creative Newton really was before the incident. He hadn’t known him for that long, so it’d be hard to say for sure.

“Oh! Um, of course Dear Chum-“ Newton spluttered as he gave the rest of his cards to his other, slightly embarrassed as people don’t normally read his things and he was worried of what Sackboy would think of them, even if he knows for a fact Sackboy’s too nice to make fun of his ideas-

Not that really could anyways...

It got Newton thinking-

He hadn’t given it much thought since Sackboy spent the night, but maybe he could...

‘No, that’s preposterous-

Maybe- 

If I could just...maybe...if I...Yes! I’ll do it!’ Newton settled his thoughts, knowing exactly what he should do.

Or at least, where he’d start.

He focused his attention to Sackboy again, seeing that his excited facial expression had changed into more of a fond one.

It made him sigh and relax internally.

It also made him physically grin and butterflies to fill his stomach.

When he was done Sackboy gave Newton back all of his index cards, specifically leaving the 3D pen one on top so he could point at it-

“This one? Out of all of them? Are you sure?” 

To which Sackboy nodded, and he opened up his Popit, scooting to Newton’s side as he did so, and went to his collected materials, gesturing to Newton as he did so, asking him to let him know which ones he needed.

Newton looked at the Popit screen, he doesn’t normally get to see one up close like this-

Curiously, cautiously, Newton lifted his hand, going forwards to touch it;

his hand went straight through, but at the same time, it felt like...jelly was surrounding it.

“Woah...” Newton murmured. “Fascinating.”

His fascination quickly turned into shock as the screen changed from showing materials to instead showing a picture of Newton’s face, words he couldn’t quite read because his hand going through them.

He instantly removed his hand, Sackboy making a concerned face. Nothing like this has ever happened to him before! 

But then again no one’s ever shoved their hand into his Popit before.

With his hand out of the Popit -which felt normal, like there was never any jelly on it- Newton could read the words next to his photo on the red tinted screen.

All of his information-

Did the Popit...scan him?

Sackboy looked as well, extremely surprised and confused.

Name: Isaac Newton Pud

Age: 23

Birthdate: 8-24 

Gender: Male

Sackperson: Lightbulb-handbag 

Current Creativity Level: 88.7%

Home Planet: Bunkum

Current Emotion: Shock

Sackboy blinked. All of a sudden he became frantic and quickly swiped the screen, revealing his own informational page.

Name: Crochet Medley Craftston 

Age: 25

Birthdate: 07-01 

Gender: Male

Sackperson: Cross Stitch

Current Creativity Level: 110%

Home Planet: Craftworld

Current Emotion: Quizzical 

The two looked each other in the eyes, neither knowing entirely what to do. This was so new for both of them.

But then, breaking the silence, 

“Your name’s Crochet?” Newton asked, which caused Sackboy to swipe his Popit screen again, returning to Newton’s info page.

He pointed at his name,

‘And your name’s Isaac?’

“I’ve never really felt like an Isaac, Newton feels more...me, to me-“ Newton explained, and Sackboy nodded in understanding.

It then just occurred to him that almost no one knew his name,

that’s why they called him Sackboy.

He’d gotten to used to being called that that he often forgets it isn’t his actual name.

His fingers began to tap on the ground for a moment, making patterns, but once he’d started he immediately stopped.

‘This would be so much easier if-‘ Sackboy’s thoughts were interrupted by Newton;

“I suppose it would be a bit odd if your real name were Sackboy- I’d be quite cross with my parents if that were the case-“ Sackboy began to laugh silently,

“I just, I don’t know what I was thinking, I’d never put much thought into it that you’d have another name,”  
Sackboy shook his head and waved his arms,

‘It’s okay!’

“Would-Would you prefer to be called Crochet?”  
Sackboy shrugged, ‘It doesn’t matter.’

To which Newton nodded, “Alright, now that that’s settled let’s get back to what we were doing before-Although I suppose touching your Popit again would be a bad idea-“ He looked at Sackboy’s Popit again,

“Wait a minute, what’s that!?” He pointed to the screen, Sackboy looking in curiosity.

The bottom of the red screen was now fading into purple-an ombré.

He blinked at it-

he hadn’t a clue as to what was going on with his device.

He needed to see to a professional about this, someone who knew a lot about Popits-

Sackboy already had someone in mind.

But getting in contact with said person would prove difficult, as Sackboy knew this person was busy with some important job, a collaborative operation to help others-

In reply to Newton, he just shrugged, exiting out of the informational pages and going back into his collection of materials.

From what he read on the index card, he’d need some type of metal, maybe plastic- perhaps rubber-

But for now he collected some cardboard to make the model, along with some sticky notes and a pencil, which would make communication easier between him and Newton.

Newton himself looked amazed at how Sackboy was able to basically just make things out of thin air-

“Dear Chum if you can do that why didn’t you when all the stuff with the Titans happened? It could’ve really helped you in your favor!” 

Sackboy grabbed a sticky note, proceeding to write ‘I can only Create on Craftworld and my Moon.’

“Because Bunkum isn’t your home planet?” Sackboy nodded, “So does that mean that this place is just an extension of Craftworld?” Thinking about it, Sackboy nodded, that would make the most sense wouldn’t it?

Selecting his Popit Cursor, Sackboy replicated the model of the pen with his cardboard as shown on Newton’s index card, a bit sloppy, but the two would work on it;

he and Newton communicated about what they should do and what the model should look like from there, excited to share their ideas with one another.

Captain Pud sighed in his recliner, Nana Pud in her own, doing a little reading on logic techniques she didn’t quite understand just yet-

After a moment, Captain broke the silence,

“You don’t feel like those boys are going too fast?” He said, causing Nana to put her book away in slight annoyance: She was learning something pretty darn interesting!

“It’s just, I don’t know honey...Sackboy visited what? 2? 3 days ago? -would you count that night? I’m night quite sure- he hadn’t been here in months but then he and my boy are just all over each other!” None of his words were malicious or of ill intent, but Nana could easily tell something else was the problem, and that her husband was stressed.

“And with all this stuff going on lately, me trying to get Newton back into school, his community service hours...I just come home and there’s so many things going on and-“

He paused, taking a moment before continuing,

“I’m just...so worried about him...about what his future could hold...Maybe if I had been around more-If I had been there for him-none of this would’ve happened...”

Nana Pud was right, it wasn’t really about Sackboy,

it was about HIM.

Captain Pud couldn’t elude this feeling of regret, couldn’t stop the train of ‘What-If?’ thoughts going through his head, he needed an anchor,

and he had one.

Said anchor spoke up; 

“It was a terrible time, our Newty being possessed by those blasted Titans-Just two months short of a year ago now-“ She has her husband’s full attention at this point,

“He did what he did because WE weren’t there for him when he needed us most,” She put a gentle hand on Captain Pud’s shoulder in order to placate him,

“But we know better now. All of us do, as a family.”

“I wish we’d learned that lesson in a less life threatening way, but what’s done is done, and we will become a better family because of it.” 

Captain Pud put away the newspaper he had in his hands. His fish hat was on the coat rack, and you could see his bald head in all of it’s glory.

He looked much calmer. All he needed was to be talked to, to be supported by someone he loved so dearly. 

He just needed someone to tell him things would be okay-

“I wouldn’t be sane without your level-headedness my dear,”

“And I wouldn’t be this responsible if it weren’t for how much I have to relieve your stress, you old dog. You know I’m here for you, you’re not doing this alone while I’m around.”

Captain stood up, Nana doing the same, and the two wrapped each other into a warm, loving embrace. A silent ‘I love you’ more powerful than words could ever be.

Letting go of each other, the married couple looked each other in the eyes, and as if reading the other’s mind, Nana said,

“And don’t worry about the boys, I’m positive they’ll be just fine. Newty’s in good hands.”

“I think Sackboy is too,” Captain Pud replied. 

“Would you like to help make dinner? I invited Steve over so we can talk about our next trip and other additional planning-“  
“I’ll make pie, last time you nearly blew up my stove, and Monty lost a good patch of fur! Poor dear still hasn’t grown it all back...”

They walked into the kitchen and started to gather what they needed. They’d settled on spaghetti and cherry pie-

As Captain was at the counter beginning to make homemade sauce he announced, loud enough to where his wife could hear-

“Thank you, Nangilla.”

Newton growled in frustration, trying desperately to get a really tiny piece onto the pen, only to have it fall off several times.

“Stupid...fat fingers...grrr-“

Sackboy spent a good five minutes watching his boyfriend fumble around, giggling silently to himself. Once he felt Newton was done suffering he tapped on his shoulder:

“Yes Dear Chum? I’m trying to-“ Sackboy only carefully held out his hand, and Newton got the gist of it pretty quick.

He put the model that they were assembling-the model of what they’d imagine it to look like before actually making anything- into Sackboy’s hands, and he quickly, almost expertly, put the piece onto the small prototype with his significantly smaller fingers. Newton was almost jealous of his partner’s ability. Giving the pen back, Newton smiled in appreciation.

“Thank you, Sackboy, I would’ve surely broken this by now if it weren’t for you-“  
Sackboy nodded, a ‘You’re welcome’ if you will. He looked at their sketches and notes they’d made over the last few hours, and he pointed the parts out to Newton, silently asking if they had them.

“Oh! I think I may-“ searching through his pockets and coming up empty-apart from index cards-Newton’s frowned slightly, “Oh, I, uh, I guess I don’t have them on me...oops...”

Sackboy shrugged and opened up his Popit, finding what he needed and giving them to Newton to look over,

“Ah, yes! These will do just fine! Thanks chum,” he was just about to get them into place, when all of a sudden he had a realization-

“Oh! Hold on a second dear chum- What time is it?” he asked, causing Sackboy to open his Popit, showing Newton the time-

8:57.

They’d been here for that long? 

Newton made a face of slight surprise.  
“Oh...well, that’s quite late isn’t it? I’ve got to get home soon-Actually, Papa happened to come back this morning, would you like to come with me? I’m sure he’d be happy to see you!” 

Well, maybe not ‘happy’ per se, but certainly expectant. Newton didn’t say that aloud however-

Sackboy nodded excitedly, and Newton internally sighed of relief-

“Jolly good news! Let’s pack up and we can get headed on our way!” Nodding in agreement, Sackboy got a smallish box from his Popit, putting all the extra parts and materials inside of it. 

He looked at Newton and held out his hand, asking for the not-yet-finished pen-

To which Newton gladly gave to him, and he put it into the box as well. He offered it to Newton, who held it in his hands carefully-

“Oh! Thank you old chap! We can work on this back at the manor after dinner!”

Sackboy smiled at his enthusiasm and passion for inventing and opened up his Popit again, proceeding to hold onto Newton’s hand as he did so.

It wasn’t necessary of course, but he wanted to.

He goes to his options page in his Popit, pushes a button or two, and suddenly the two are back in the Pod.

Newton’s eyes turn into stars. He didn’t notice this before-

Looking out the window for a moment, he says, 

“Can we stay here? Just for a moment of course-“

“It’s all just...very pretty...”

Shrugging, Sackboy sat down at a window, and Newton sat next to him, both continuing to look outside and stargaze together.

“Quite the nice view up here...It’s different on Bunkum, not bad, but certainly nothing like this...” There were stars twinkling for who knows how far, and planets all around, orbiting each other and all rotating at different speeds-

A shooting star shot past the both of them, before a whole shower of stars rained down before their very eyes.

Newton could only light up, which wasn’t very hard, considering he was already alit, but still.

After a moment of this, Newton couldn’t shake a particular question from his mind:

“Sackboy?” he asked, gaining his attention,  
“I know you live in Craftworld and all, but what is this place to you? Do you live here as well?” 

Without thinking, Sackboy’s fingers began to tap on the cardboard floor, before he recollected his thoughts and stopped.

He did a motion with his hands, ‘so-so.’

“Ah, I see, so sometimes you’re here and sometimes you’re at Craftworld? Do you have a home there?”

Sadly, Sackboy nodded, before standing up and pointing to his Pod controller, signifying he was ready to go.

Newton figured this was where he should stop asking questions and he stood up as well, “Oh...yes, I suppose we should be on our way...I apologize if I’d brought something up chum-“  
Sackboy shook his head at him and smiled, saying it was okay, and Newton didn’t continue with his rambling any further.

Going to his Pod Controller, Sackboy transported himself and Newton to the backyard of Stichem Manor, the closest he could go, as it’s dangerous to try and transport oneself into a building -Lots of things could be destroyed and threads could be torn-(and also because the portal was there and it was easier to find on his map)

Newton held onto the box, a bit tighter now, in case he fell or something. He couldn’t see that far away, his light wasn’t very bright, especially when it was this dark-

Sackboy noticed this and opened up his Sackpocket, grabbing his illuminator (which he wished he’d remembered he had a few days ago, he wouldn’t have hit his head, but it could’ve broke in the rain, he wasn’t too sure yet, and this is his only one, he doesn’t want to test that out too soon) and lighting the way, he saw the door and began to walk the path towards it, but Newton stopped him-

“Our back door’s broken old chap, one of Mumsy’s mini robot prototypes for the new guardian managed to get it stuck and we can’t open it at the moment, we’ll have to go through the front door-“

Sackboy nodded in understanding and lead the way to the front of the house, Newton in tow.

Once they reached the door Sackboy put up his illuminator and opened the door so his partner could get inside, he uttered a ‘thank you’ as he did so, and Sackboy followed, making sure to close the door behind him-

Newton lead the two to his room so he could put the box away next to his desk. 

“Alright, I say that was a pretty productive day, what about you Dear Chum?”

Turning around Newton saw Sackboy giving him a thumbs up-

“Quite fun, we should definitely do this again if your up for it?” To which Sackboy gave him a look saying ‘you’re an idiot, of course we’re doing this again,’ before he started to do his laugh-breathing thing.

Newton started to laugh too, just a chuckle, before saying, “Alright come on, let’s go talk to Papa, I’m sure they’re just in the kitchen, I should probably help out anyhow-“

The two walked out of the room and Newton led them to the kitchen-

It was a really big house, Sackboy wasn’t surprised he’d already forgotten where most of everything was.

Once they’d made it to there destination, Newton walked in, Sackboy behind him, and said gingerly,

“Hello Mumsy, Papa, I’m back- Would you like help with dinner?” 

Nana turned around from the window she was at, checking on the pie,

“Newty! There you are! Yes, set the table for us dear, four people,” At this moment she noticed Sackboy,

“Make that five would you dear?”

“Who else is coming?” 

At that point Captain Pud walked in the room through the doorframe on the other side of the room, the sleeves of his light blue sweater rolled up on his arms, revealing the same cotton white skin that Newton himself had, albeit only slightly darker-  
He went over to the kitchen counter and started to clean up the mess of tomatoes and sauces and other gunk he’d no doubtably made. 

“The researcher I’m working with,” he started, “I invited him over to schedule my next trip, I’m hoping around the next month or two, get through the holidays and all that before leaving for the Starry Caverns,” 

Newton was stoked, he’d finally get to meet the person working with his father! He really respected this individual’s work-

“Why are you inviting him tonight when you just came back this morning?” came out of his mouth without thought,

“If I don’t do it now I won’t remember to later; we’d actually planned for him to meet you whenever he was free. He said he was free most of the time anyways, as his kid’s been out of the house for a while-“

“He wants...to meet me?”

“I honestly couldn’t do that, It’d be far too quiet here if you weren’t around-Huh? Oh! Yes, he does want to meet you, he says the way I describe you is similar to how he’d describe his own son, who apparently he hasn’t seen in a while.”

“How’d you describe me to him Papa?”

“A fine young man with a bright future ahead of him, mostly. I’d shared a few stories about the things you’ve made...or destroyed, and he had similar stories of his own kid. Apparently he’d once made a catapult for vegetables-“ he began to laugh, “Ah,”

“It’s like the time you made your boiled egg slingshot Son, you hit that one kid’s forehead-“ At this point Captain was laughing loudly and uncontrollably, happy memories flooding through his mind like no tomorrow.

“Oh! Oh!” He exclaimed, putting the dirty rag he used to clean the counter under hot water, “The time you rigged the light switches at your elementary school to shock anyone who touched them! The school was dark for three days before they suspended you-!” “Captain!” Nana Pud scolded,  
“You’re distracting the boy from making the table!” 

“Oh! Yes, Newton, make the table! If I find an egg in my mug or in my chair I will not hesitate to ground you-“

“I’m not going to do that Papa, I’m a grown man, I’ve learned from my mistakes!” Newton said, feigning innocence-

He looked at Sackboy as he began to make the table, he smiled devilishly as he pulled an egg from his pocket and put it in the guest mug-

Sackboy snickered to himself before wondering where that egg came from.

He forgot how much of a troublemaker Newton was for a moment-

He finished making the table, it was far neater than what Sackboy had expected of him; a messy, unorganized sackperson whose best talent is falling-

It looked professionally done actually.

“Do you know what kind of tea our guest likes Papa?” 

“I think he likes Oolong tea? Check the pantry for it, you remember what we like right?” 

“Yes, Earl grey for you and Green tea for Mumsy-“ he turned to Sackboy, “What kind do you like? You can come to the pantry with me and pick?” He nodded and they went to the pantry together, after looking at the large selection of tea, Newton asked, “Are you not a big tea drinker?” he already had what he was looking for, along with Lemon tea for himself-

Sackboy shook his head, and Newton smiled, searching through what they had, “Oh! I think you’ll like Chamomile! If you don’t we can always just switch it out for something else if that’s okay?”

Sackboy nodded, and Newton smiled a little brighter, leaning down to kiss his partner for a moment. Sackboy froze in the suddenness of the moment-

“You’re adorable Dear Chum, you know that?” he said standing upright again. He then chuckled and walked out, going to the kitchen to start heating up water.

Sackboy just stood there for a second, smiling to himself as he fluffed up.  
Shaking himself off, he too went to the kitchen.

“So, Sackboy,” Captain Pud started, gaining his attention after a minute or two,

“You ever thought of going to college? Your other friends except for Oddsock are getting degrees now I’ve heard,” 

Sackboy opened up his Popit and took out a paper, handing it to Captain so he could look it over,

“Oh! Guess you’ve already got one-A degree in Intellectual Creation isn’t easy to get, good work, boy.” He patted Sackboy on the back, giving him back his certificate so he could put it back in his Popit, which still had that weird ombré on it. It seemed like he couldn’t get rid of it-

He looked around, noticing Newton was busy speaking to his mother while the water warmed up, he turned back to Sackboy,

“I’ve actually been thinking of getting Newton to go back to the academy, Larry’s in the process of showing me different options for him. We’ve been thinking of Mechanical Engineering, as it’d be a hands on program- I just don’t really know how well he’d take the idea...” Sackboy put his hand on his non-existent chin in thought, before giving Captain Pud a double thumbs up.

“You think he’d go for it?” Sackboy nodded, very sure Newton would like the idea. At the very least somewhat-

Captain Pud then checked the time on the clock above him and Sackboy, “Oh, he’ll be here any minute now...” he murmured. 

Just then the teapot began to scream in agony, causing Newton to stop his conversation with Nana and go to the stove, grabbing the teapot to fill everyone’s mugs and finish setting up the table.

A minute later the doorbell rang,

“Oh, that’s him! I’ll be right back, everyone at the table!” Captain Pud said, going over to the door to get their dinner guest.

Newton took a spot at the relatively large square table, patting the seat next to him while looking at Sackboy, an invitation.

Sackboy just smiled and rolled his eyes, going to sit next to his boyfriend-

All of a sudden all three of them heard Captain Pud and his coworker;

“It’s a pleasure to have you over! I’m glad you could make it! My son’s been dying to finally meet you-”

Once the two were at the doorframe, Captain Pud pointed out his son,

“There’s Newton, you’ve heard all about him by now-“  
He then pointed out Sackboy, “And that’s his partner, Sackboy,”

Sackboy’s eyes went wide as he saw who the Pud’s dinner guest was-

“Oh my god, Crochet?”

He waved awkwardly at his father, all eyes clearly on him.


	5. In Every Mind, There Is a Piece Of Code That Operates Our Creative Functions

In Every Mind, There Is a Piece Of Code That Operates Our Creative Functions

“Wait a minute, THAT’S Crochet?” Captain Pud gasped, looking towards his colleague-

Said colleague didn’t pay him any mind as he was already rushing towards Sackboy, encasing him in a bone crushing hug.

“Ah bless-“ The strange black fabric’d man with an orange beard breathed out, relief heavily lacing his tone, “Your friends came home and said they’d lost you...” he looked the young man in the eyes.

He himself only had one, and it was bright green, the other was just a bunch of bright green stitches where his eye WOULD’VE been if he had one-

He seemed to tear up slightly and his breath hitched as he once again hugged the smaller sackperson in front of him. A bit more tenderly this time around.

He let Sackboy go after a moment, proceeding to look at his coworker;

He attempted to speak, but Captain stopped him-

“Dinner first, you seem distraught.  
Here, have a seat-“

Captain Pud sat everyone down at the table, going towards the counter to get the food ready and on plates for everyone, leaving Nana, Newton, Sackboy, and the strange dinner guest alone with their thoughts.

The black fabric’d man stood up and offered his hand to Nana, a small shy smile on his face-

“Steven Craftston, my apologies about earlier-I haven’t seen Crochet in so long-and we were all so terribly worried for him back on Craftworld-“ 

“You must be Nangilla? Your husband is a pleasure to work with.” In response Nana smiled, proceeding to speak up to gain Captain’s attention-

“I like him! Your most polite coworker yet!”

She then turned her own attention back to Steve, “Pleasure to have you for dinner dearie.” She patted the back of the man’s hand and plopped back down in her chair.

Newton, of course, sat next to Sackboy, who was in the middle between him and the odd dinner guest-

Man this was awkward.

Not really knowing what to do, Sackboy reached for his cup of tea, bringing it up to his mouth so he could finally try it for the first time.

“Since when do you drink tea Crochet?” Steve asked after he sat down as well and got a good look at what the smaller sackperson was drinking-

In response to that, Sackboy tapped his fingers idly on the table for a few seconds, making the strange black fabric’d man chuckle-

“Well you shouldn’t have tried to run up the stairs like that.”

This interaction fascinated Newton greatly, and he couldn’t stop himself from speaking up about it:

“Uh, sir?” he said, gaining the man’s attention, “how does-how do you understand him?”

Steve took notice of the young man’s genuine curiosity and interest, almost instantly gaining a liking for the young man,

“Well, when he was young, age six to be exact, he had surgery on his-” Sackboy stopped him, tapping on the table again, making his mouth turn into an ‘o’ shape in realization.

“You already know about his broken heart?”

“I’m very good at charades, sir,”  
-This response had made the man give a look of confusion for a brief moment-  
“but I had assumed the surgery was after the Negativitron nearly-“

He stopped.

The mention of Negativitron made Sackboy visibly flinch, concerning Newton for a moment.

And he WOULD’VE asked if he were okay, but Steve continued speaking:

“Well-THAT event may‘ve made it worse, but no, he’s almost two decades post operation.

Anyways, back to what I was getting at, I tried to put Crochet in a class to learn sign language, but something about it really set him off...I ended up teaching him his own form of sign language, our own little code if you will-“ Newton nodded as he listened along to the man’s story, paying very close attention-

“I can teach you, if you’d like- I’d imagine it’d make communication a lot easier between you and my son.”

Newton eagerly nodded before realizing what was just said to him and he spluttered “Son?”

“You’re his father?!”

Sackboy facepalmed. He forgets his partner is a bit of a moron when he isn’t inventing something. Or causing havoc.

Okay, so maybe he’s still a moron when he’s doing those things...

“Oh! I suppose only Captain truly knew for sure- Yes, I am his father.” before Newton could say anything, Steve continued-  
“I understand your confusion however, we don’t look alike at all,” he chuckled slightly, albeit somberly as well if you payed close enough attention.

“Oh...  
Well, thank you for offering to teach me! I’m always open to learning!”

Hearing this, Captain mumbled to himself as he got spaghetti on the last plate-

“Well you better be, it’s hard work trying to get you back into school...” 

He gathered a few plates and started to pass them around the table, and Sackboy put down the tea he was quietly sipping.

He found that he quite enjoyed it-

“How’s the tea lad?” Captain asked as Sackboy’s mug was placed on the table, making said sackperson smile widely, giving a thumbs up-

“Good to hear boy!” He patted the smaller on the back and finished handing everyone their plate, Steve saying ‘thank you’ as he got his.

Once he was done Captain Pud sat at the table besides his wife, almost instantly digging into his spaghetti-

Nana looked at him almost in shock,

why was he eating so aggressively? 

It was so ridiculous and unlike him that she started laughing, and Captain looked over to his side to stare at her;

“What’s funny honey?” he said as a noodle hung from his mouth-

She snorted.

“You old dog! I’ve seen pigs eat with more decency!” 

Captain slowly slurped the loose noodle into his mouth, a fake offended expression on his face-

Just then the entire table began to laugh.

A warm feeling began to spread across Sackboy’s body, and it wasn’t just the tea:

For the first time in all of his life, he felt like he was a part of a family. A whole family, not just him and his father, like how it had been for the entirety of his childhood, and most of his adulthood as well.

“So,”

“His real name’s Crochet?”

Nana Pud asked after the table died down.

“Oh! Yes, I’m sorry, I forget most people don’t know, he doesn’t really have a way of saying his actual name to most people-“ Steve answered, a bit awkwardly.

“Ah, I understand,” Nana said, and then asked;

“Does Sackboy look more like his mother?”

Steve tensed up slightly, he chuckled even more awkwardly than he was before-

“Ah, I wouldn’t know...I was told his parents had passed when I adopted him as a baby.

We’ve got no idea what either of his birth parents look like-“

Nana Pud made a shocked face-

But at that very moment something clicked within Newton:

‘This is why...

His broken heart...

It makes sense...’

It was like one met one and made two in his mind. Like all the variables in the equation showing themselves to solve the problem-

“I am so sorry, I didn’t, I hadn’t thought-“

“No no no! It’s all fine!” Steve interrupted Nana, “Don’t be upset! We’ve come to terms with this a long time ago!”

Nana didn’t know how to respond to this new information, but looking at Sackboy for a moment, she said;

“I’m sure if they were here they’d be very proud of the young man you’ve become.”

Sackboy smiled, the warmth becoming just that much warmer at the love he felt from Nana’s words-

A certain young lightbulb felt as if he were beginning to understand a side of his partner that he had no idea even existed. His mind racing with numbers and calculations and probabilities and a plethora of other ideas-

Just then Steve began to drink his tea and said lightbulb and Sackboy both felt the same feeling of dread as they remembered what Newton put into that mug of tea-

After a brief moment, Steve made a confused face, putting his mug down.

He grabbed a napkin and spat out a whole boiled egg.

He stared at it-

“That’s a new one...”

“NEWTON!” Captain Pud yelled, this time a genuinely offended expression on his face-

“We shouldn’t have let that boy make tea-“  
“No, the tea was good, I should’ve just checked his pockets first.”

Just then Steven began laughing, effectively stopping the married couple in their tracks;

“Your son’s very entertaining, I assume he’s the troublemaker of the family?”

“Oh, very much so!” Nana huffed, “Would you like me to make you a new cup of tea?”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Very good actually, can’t even taste a hint of egg-“  
He took a sip to prove his point.  
“What all does he put in this? It’s positively delightful!”

“Never tells us,” Captain laughed, “Says it’s a secret and what not. But at least now we know he likes eggs with his tea-“ 

Sackboy laughed to himself as he ate his spaghetti, Newton looking very uncomfortable.

Everyone settled down to eat for a few minutes, before Captain Pud broke the silence,

“So what’s this vegetable catapult I’ve heard so much about?”

Sackboy snorted as his skin fluffed, his fingers tapping on the table-

Steve chuckled as he decoded his son’s tapping, memories flooding his mind;

“When he was a child I told him he didn’t have to eat his vegetables if somehow they were all lost in space-“ Sackboy looked so embarrassed, but at the same time he was laughing silently to himself. “He worked on that little catapult for months, ah bless, he couldn’t even get the vegetables past our fence!

He was such a peculiar boy...still is, actually!” 

The table continued to eat and laugh and joke around, Newton eventually getting the pie because everyone was long finished with their spaghetti-

Nana Pud cut it into slices and Captain Pud passed them out, a few leftovers in the tray.

“Ooh, cherry! My favorite!” Steve exclaimed, eagerly reaching for his fork-

Dinner had gone by extremely quickly.

Everyone barely even noticed how fast the time had gone by-

Newton (as asked by his mother) was gathering all the cutlery and and washing them. Because of the little stunt he pulled he was also cleaning the table and the kitchen floor, along with any other mess he could find.

Nana knew this wouldn’t stop him from his antics but it’d at least keep him busy for the moment.

She brought herself outside and sat on the porch, 

She’d be here a while.

Getting comfortable on the steps, she grinned feeling the cool night air against her skin, going through her curls-

A hug from nature, she liked to call it.

Newton sighed as he finished cleaning the entirety of the kitchen, forcing his body-sore from the excitement of the day-to his room.

Opening the door, he couldn’t help but grin stupidly at seeing his dear chum on his bed, working on their 3d pen project, still in its alpha model-

Hearing the door open and close, Sackboy looked up, seeing his doofus of a boyfriend. He waved-

“Want some help? I apologize for being in the kitchen for longer than ideal, but I’m glad to see you’ve found yourself a form of entertainment!”

Newton walked over and plopped onto his bed, sighing in relief once he felt the soft mattress on his sore body.

“ughnnnn....” He groaned happily, “That’s so nice,”

Sackboy giggled to himself. 

Of course Newton was tired;

He playfully hit Newton in the shoulder, pointing at their model when he opened an eye-

“Okay okay give me a second dear chum I’ve been running around all day-“ the young man whined jokingly, forcing himself up to look at the smaller of the two,

“Now where were we with this?” he asked, taking hold of the small skeleton of a device into his (considerably larger than Sackboy’s) hands.

“Have you ever been to the Starry Caverns before?” Captain Pud asked, taking hold of the map Steven had given him as the duo stood at his work desk-

“Well, no, but I have a cousin living there, haven’t seen him in over a decade, but-“ he didn’t really know how to end that sentence, but Captain simply nodded,

“Well, if it’s safe enough to live there maybe we could bring the boys along? A guy’s trip maybe? I know you’ve been upset at not seeing Sackboy for...uh, however long you haven’t seen him...” he stuttered awkwardly,  
“And I’ve been in and out of the house for a while...”

“It’d be a great bonding experience.” Steve concluded.

“Exactly!”

“The issue still is that cave’s are dangerous. We’ll have to show the boys how to properly navigate them if we want to bring them along-“

“Of course, no son of mine is going on a journey like that without proper training!   
Exploring is in the family name!”

Steve smiled at his coworker’s eagerness. 

After a moment of thought, the two had settled on going in two months, after the holidays and all-

The two grown men then began to fangirl over Captain Pud’s model airship collection;

“Oh, this one? I made that...twelve years ago?  
Yeah, that’s about right.”

Steve examined the old thing in awe, completely fascinated.

“When Newton was first born I had to take a break from exploration and help around the house. Making these helped pass the time, they’re probably the thing that got that boy into inventing in the first place!” Captain chuckled at the end.

“Do you have any hobbies?” he then asked his friend.

“Well...I suppose poetry would fit the ‘hobby’ category, but what I really love to do when I have the time is watch the kids at the orphanage-“ 

Steve smiled sadly,

“Those kids...they really get put through the ringer, I’m just there to help ease them through it.  
I don’t teach anymore officially, but sometimes I’ll help with their schooling,”

Captain nodded in understanding, before going to grab a notebook-

“Do you have any dates in mind?”

As Steve wrote down a few dates into the notebook, Captain Pud realized that he really liked his colleague.

Perhaps this is the start of a friendship that could really last a long, long time-

Even if he really liked to talk a lot and tended to interrupt people.

Reading over the dates when he got the little notebook back, Captain nodded to himself;  
“I think I could make most of these work.”

“Fantastic! I say this’ll be quite the trip! Perhaps we’ll even run into my cousin on the way-I hear they’ve got some spectacular light shows as well-!”

“Oh! I apologize, I’m rambling-“ Steve said sheepishly,

“Don’t apologize, tell me more about these light shows,” Captain smiled as his friend’s eye lit up, his grin wide as he continued to speak about what he’s heard from his cousin-

“...And apparently the lights are just bright enough to illuminate the caverns in blue...the water turns purple...oh it’s so exciting...!”

Steve rambled for a minute, extremely passionate about what he was talking about-

Once he was finished, he was seemingly out of breath:

“Pfft, you okay there?” Captain noticed.

“Yes, yes I’m fine...got...really excited for a moment...” The green eyed man huffed-

Captain Pud started laughing,

his hand went to his stomach as he tried to stop himself-

After a second everything calmed down.

“Think we should check on the boys?”  
Steve asked,

“Probably, I’ve been meaning to talk to Sackboy anyhow,”

Captain stood up, beginning to walk out of the room, Steve shortly behind.

“What about? If you don’t mind me asking-“

“Newton.”

“Ah, I see. I was going to go through the basics of finger tapping with him, actually, so it all works out-“

The carpet was soft, it wasn’t scratchy.

Sackboy was thankful for this as he and Newton sat on it, working on their project together-

“Do you think this is a bit bulky Dear Chum?”

Being brought out of his thoughts, Sackboy looked at what Newton was referring to, before nodding in agreement-

‘Yeah, the nozzle doesn’t need to be that big, I see that now.’ 

The two began to make adjustments to the piece when out of the blue the door opened, revealing their fathers-

Sackboy’s heart nearly exploded at the loudness of the door hitting the wall, and Steve shot him an apologetic look. Ever since the incident with the Negativitron Sackboy had been afraid of overly loud, abrupt noises.

Sounds of something crashing worried him if he didn’t know what it was, the same thing with something breaking.

Screaming was certainly the worst for him.

He’d heard so many screams, so, so many screams during that time-

He couldn’t save everyone.

He couldn’t-

Sackboy’s arm couldn’t stretch any further.  
He couldn’t reach.

“Help! Please!” the cries pierced his non-existent ears, rattling his brain.

They were dangling from a ledge, and it was about to break off and fall into the fire-

Sackboy couldn’t reach.

He was frozen in place as they fell, there wasn’t even a slim chance for survival-

“Newton, do you mind us speaking for a moment?” 

Sackboy was brought out of his memories by his father;

“I figure now’s as good a time as any to teach you how to decode our finger tapping,” he waved his fingers a bit, “Ah, if you’re not busy, of course-“ 

“No, no, I’m free,” Newton turned to Sackboy, “We might be able to finish when I come back...” his voice was quiet, gentle. Different from his usual loud and cheery self.

Like the sleepover-

‘He seems really tired,’ Sackboy noticed.

He watched as Newton stood up and walked towards his father, before both of them left the room, leaving just him and Captain Pud.

After a brief moment of silence, Captain sighed, deep and heavy, like he was being held down by a heavy weight.

He spoke up-

“There’s a few things I need to tell you about Newton...” 

Sackboy gave him a brief look of confusion as he walked over to him, sitting cross legged beside him on the carpet.

“Well, you already know he’s...different-“ Sackboy nodded, “You know, Popit deficiency...” He already knew that his son had told Sackboy, so he quickly went to his next point-

“Well...he’ll never admit this to you, not unless he has to, but-“ he paused, a slight loss of words, making the younger of the two slightly worried.

“He...has issues, with...well, depression...it can get pretty bad-  
He’s been doing better lately but...  
if he’s stressed enough he...becomes a danger to himself-“ Sackboy’s eyes widened as he was pretty sure where this was going,  
“He’s never hurt anyone else (on purpose at least) but there are times when even I can’t stop him from ripping out his own stitches.” He sighed again, looking very uncomfortable.

“I’m telling you this because I know you’ll be careful with him. Before you left for a few months whenever you came to visit I definitely noticed a positive change in mood from him.”

Captain’s face changed to uncomfortable again as he spoke: 

“Now there’s another reason I told you about his self harming,” he reached into his pocket,  
“if he...ever has an episode, while you’re around...which, let’s face it, I have a feeling you’ll be around for a while...”

he handed Sackboy something,

“This, normally, for some reason, helps.”

Sackboy looked into the palm of his hand, a ball. Red with gold symbols on it. Squishy.

“Keep it on you, if you give it to him he’ll get mad one day and try to throw it out-but when he’s...upset,” Captain emphasized, “the ball tends to calm him down.”

Sackboy understood. Newton was the type of person who needed to feel things in order to stay in the here and now.

The young creationist himself didn’t have many issues with self harm, at least in the way he assumes Newton does, but he understood. 

Looking at the ball again for a moment, Sackboy opened up his Popit, making sure to label the ball ‘For Emergencies’ before exiting.

Oh yeah, his Popit-

Steve should have an answer for that,

hopefully.

Captain Pud stood up, gesturing for Bunkum’s hero to do the same.

As they began to walk out of the room Captain patted Sackboy on the back-

“Other than that I’d say you’ve got this in the bag! Thanks for coming for dinner,”

“It was good seeing you again after so long!”

Sackboy smiled as the two walked down the hallway,

it has been a minute since he’d last seen Captain Pud, hasn’t it?

Yeah, the last time he’d seen him was four months ago-

He and his friends were helping the Puds get materials to rebuild Stichem Manor. Toggle was (of course) doing the heavy lifting with all the metals and such.

It was actually like a tier-

Toggle carried the heaviest things,  
then Swoop came after,  
followed by Oddsock,  
and then Sackboy.

Sackboy was actually very insecure about that, about how he wasn’t very strong without assistance. He actually had to bring his grabinators at the time so he could help without tearing his woolen skin-

The house was nearly finished, luckily enough-

Sackboy was actually quite surprised with how fast they were going with it, six months to rebuild? That’s crazy!

But it was probably because they had so much help,

not that Sackboy and his friends minded, of course not! 

They loved helping!

And Sackboy liked the distraction...

Said sackperson remembers helping Toggle pick up a particularly heavy piece of wood,

Toggle stood up fully, accidentally forgetting Sackboy was so much smaller than him, causing the wood to fling the sackling through the air-

“Oh fuck!” Toggle gasped.

He didn’t speak much, but he was definitely more likely to swear than the rest of his friends were-

Waving his arms frantically, essentially dropping the wood, he yelled upwards;

“SWOOP?!” 

Hearing the distress, the flight expert looked down at her friend, who was pointing to Sackboy, currently flying through the air.

She gasped, “What did you do!?” 

She then realized she couldn’t catch her friend or she’d drop the sharp metal she was holding, possibly hurting someone in the process-

“I can’t-“

Toggle understood, instantly calling for Oddsock-

Newton was carrying some heavy bags of concrete powder when he heard something scream the word ‘fuck’ loudly,

curious, he looked over to see Toggle frantically waving him arms in the air, and then point in the direction in front of him-

Looking that way, Newton gasped loudly, dropping his bags and running towards his dear chum, who for whatever reason was soaring through the air,

‘Like a football,’ Newton thought, the young inventor remembering playing the sport during his college days.

So, getting into position, Newton braced himself for impact as Sackboy was flung forcefully into his arms by gravity, the young man instantly gripping tightly to the smaller and bringing him close to his chest as he thought he was going to fall-

To his surprise however he barely even swayed.

“Oh wow, you are quite light dear chum, I’m honestly surprised!” he gently put down his friend, who’s skin was ruffled up-

‘Must’ve been the air,’ Newton assumed.

“Now, I hope you know you’re not Swoop right? You don’t have wings like her-“ Sackboy playfully stuck his tongue out at him, but then gave him a hug,

‘Thanks for catching me...’

“Oh, uh, you’re welcome, dear chum! Any time! Not that I WANT you to be thrown through the air again though-That’s preposterous! But- I..Uh...” He trailed off, assuming his friend got the message, his face warm and bright with embarrassment.

He hugged back, happy he could help out before something bad could’ve happened-

Sackboy could’ve been thrown into the metal sheets behinds Newton, essentially tearing him apart considering his velocity.

Newton basically risked his life for him.

And he just then noticed that-

‘Oh, well, surely Papa won’t be TOO upset about that...it was for a good cause’

“Sack!” Oddsock yelled, causing Sackboy to let go of Newton, turning towards his dog-like friend so quickly that Newton only knew he was crying by looking down at his damp undershirt.

“Chum...?” The inventor reached out for his friend, turning him back around,

and yep, he was definitely crying.

He grabbed hold of the smaller’s hands, beginning to guide him-

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up...” Sackboy nodded an ‘okay’ and began to follow Newton.

“Hey, I’ll get these for you while you take care of Sack alright?” Oddsock said, gesturing towards the bags Newton had dropped earlier-

“Thanks friend!” Newton exclaimed in appreciation just as he and Sackboy made it to the door.

Most of the rooms in the house were finished, they just looked a bit different is all, a little empty, as the Puds haven’t put in much furniture, just the essentials-

Newton went and got some tissue in the kitchen, handing it to Sackboy so he could wipe away his tears.  
He sat on the table after he did so,

“Are you hurt? Physically I mean-“ 

Sackboy frantically shook his head, waving around his arms.

“I don’t believe you.”

Newton’s voice held a seriousness that Sackboy had never heard before, and it honestly kind of frightened him-

‘Did his voice get deeper too?’ 

“Are you okay?” He asked again, his voice losing its dark tone, but was still serious.

Slowly, the small creationist shook his head, turning over his arm so the other could see, a bit of creativity oozing from a fresh wound-

Anatomy was weird for sackpeople. That was obvious, but they all had one thing in common,

they all bleed creativity. And if they ever happened to run out, they die.

Creativity is pumped into their systems by their heart, and creativity is produced by eating food-

Creativity is produced in a lot of ways, actually.

Newton looked over the slice on Sackboy’s woolen skin, examining it.

After a moment, he said-

“Well, it doesn’t require new stitches, thank goodness, but it’ll need a bandage so you don’t get infected-“

He rummaged through some boxes on the kitchen counter, getting off of the table to do so.

“Ah! There we go, found them!” He rummaged a bit more for a second before walking up to his dear chum,

he proceeded to wrap Sackboy’s arm after cleaning it, taping the bandage when he was finished so it wouldn’t come undone-

“There we go! That should just heal on its own in a few days or so.”

Sackboy smiled as a show of his appreciation.

“Now let’s get back outside shall we? I think I’ll be able to help Toggle for you,”

Sackboy nodded, then remembered that he’d dropped his grabinators while flying-

‘Oh crap, I think I may’ve broken them...’ he thought.

Coming outside, he realized that he did.

As he was launched into the air his grabinators fell off, smashing into the ground-

One was completely unfixable, shattered beyond repair,

and the other...

well, it was lost.

Sackboy’s heart just sorta...broke, at that very moment.

‘Victoria‘s gonna be so mad...’ was the first thought to pop into the creationist’s mind-

“Oh dear,” Newton noted as Sackboy picked up the pieces of what was once his beloved device.

“That...that’s fixable right? Maybe I could hel-“ Sackboy shook his head, stoping the inventor in his tracks.

“Oh...I’m sorry...” He said, causing the smaller of the two to look at Newton with confusion-

“I know how much you like your tools, and as an inventor I know how frustrating it is when you have something you really love but it gets destroyed.” 

Sackboy nodded.

“Well, let’s see if we can use any of these...” he thought for a second, 

“Grabby-tool-bits can be recycled!” He was just about to continue speaking when Toggle ran up to Sackboy-

in dwarf form.

Newton’s never going to get used to that.

Once he reached the two Toggle changed back into his normal form-

“Oh shit-“ he looked over Sackboy, who was giving him a look of distaste-

“Oh fuck, sorry- Shit! I know you don’t like that- Damnit! Fuck! Motherfu-“

Newton didn’t like the excessive swearing that much either, in his mind it was just an excuse for people who didn’t know any words, but Sackboy seemed to dislike it a whole lot more than him a hundred times over.

The large sackperson with anger issues stopped speaking, took a moment to take a deep breath, and spoke, calmly

“I am so, SO sorry about what just happened- Are you okay?” He noticed the bandage on his significantly smaller friend’s arm...”Oh fu-“ He stopped himself, an attempt to mind his words,

“It’s not bad is it?” he rephrased, worry in his eyes.

Sackboy shook his head no, and Toggle seemed to sigh in relief.

“Anything else?”

Sackboy lifted up the broken pieces of his grabinator-

“Oh my god...Sack, I didn’t mean for that to happen, I know how much you loved those things-“

Sackboy shook his head again, and then smiled, opening his arms, offering a hug.

To his surprise, Toggle lifted the tiny sackperson up and playfully threw him over his shoulder-

“Alright, come on mate, Captain P’s opening up the portal!” 

“So soon?” Newton interrupted, causing Toggle to look at him-

“You know what time it is? It’s almost 10!”

“Wha-Really? Wow, time sure does fly doesn’t it? Well, I suppose I’ll be on my way then, you all have a good night now!” Toggle waved as the inventor awkwardly walked back into his home, tripping over his boots one or two times-

“...He’s a lot weirder when he isn’t evil...”

Sackboy shrugged in response.

I mean, he kinda digged it-

“Alright then, let’s get going, the others are probably wondering where we are,” 

Sackboy was brought out of his little trance when he and Bunkum’s most well known explorer entered the living room, and he saw his father trying to teach his boyfriend-

Why was that so adorable? 

“Alright,” Steve said, “Those are just basic everyday words, we can get into more complex things later on, but I can write down a few notes if you need any?”

“Oh! I’ve already written down everything you’ve told me today!” Newton proceeded to bring out his notepad, which, indeed, had a bunch of notes written down in semi-neat handwriting-

Steve looked over it,

“Why would you write down what I said about mayonnaise not being a condiment you put on a hot dog?” 

“I wrote that down?” Newton gasped, looking over his notes-

“Oh, I suppose I did!” He laughed for a few seconds.

“Well I see you two are getting along,” Captain Pud said, a smirk on his face;

“Oh, hello Papa! Yes, he’s quite the excellent teacher-“ 

“Well, I should hope so, I was a teacher at our local orphanage for 9 years!” 

Newton made a ‘hmm?’ sound at this-

“But didn’t you adopt Sackboy?”

“Oh! Sorry that must be very confusing! I worked as a teacher at a different orphanage years before I ever even thought of adopting a child myself!” 

“Ooooh,” Newton nodded in understanding-

“Speaking of which,”

Steve turned, “Crochet? Are you ready to leave now? I’d really like for you to come back home tonight...I’ve missed you dearly,” 

Sackboy jumped in slight surprise when his father called him, he wasn’t really paying attention and he was caught off guard-

Looking up towards his father, the young creator saw a sadness in Steve’s eye. 

A sadness that HE caused.

Because HE had left him,   
without warning,  
without contacting anyone,  
leaving everybody in the dark and making them worry.

‘Why, you’re afraid.’ he could hear the Negativitron tell him in his mind-

And you know what? It was right.

Sackboy shook off his negative thoughts and walked up to his father and Newton.

He nodded to his father, a ‘Yes, I will go home.’ which made Steven smiled brightly, his lime green eye seeming to get an even brighter shade of green-

Turning to Newton, Sackboy smiled, pointing to his hand.

“Oh!”

He held it out for him.

Sackboy smiled as he tapped on his boyfriend’s palm, essentially saying his very first word to him-

‘Goodbye’

“Uh...there’s a ‘g’ in there...Chum ‘gooye’ isn’t a word-“

Okay, so maybe Newton didn’t understand just yet, but he was trying,

and that’s what counts.

Sackboy silently laughed as he kissed his partner on the cheek, making his bulb shine just a little bit brighter-

He waved to him as he stood by his father’s side, making the young inventor wave back and smile.

“See you later chum!”

Sackboy smiled back-

“You two be safe! Thanks for coming to dinner!” Captain Pud said, leaning against a wall.

“Oh we will, thanks for having us!” Steve said, opening up his Popit, causing Sackboy to do the same:

With a press of a button the two of them disappeared,

-poof-

gone.

“Alright, I’d say that was a pretty good night, what about you?” Captain asked his son.

“It was fun, we should do it again sometime!”

“We most likely will, I quite like Steve’s company.”

“Yeah,” Newton said, yawning.

“I’ll be heading off to bed now, tell Mumsy I said goodnight for me-“ he began to walk off,

“I will, goodnight son.”

“Goodnight Papa,” he yawned again-

Once the inventor made it to his room, he barely changed into his pajamas before flopping onto his bed and falling asleep, his light almost instantly going dim.


End file.
